‘Rope,’ a psychological thriller, coming to Hobnob Theatre
An upcoming play at Hobnob Theatre Company is a psychological thriller that asks not “whodunit,” but “will they get away with it?”
“Rope” initially debuted in 1929, with a script inspired by a real-life 1924 murder case in which wealthy Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks, reportedly to showcase their intellectual superiority.
Duane Peters, the director of “Rope,” said the play adapts this story into a drama that unfolds in real time as the two killers attempt to keep their dinner guests from discovering they are dining in the presence of a dead body.
“It’s a psychological thriller because you’re seeing these two young men who believe themselves to be superior to everybody else,” Peters said. “Little by little, they make little mistakes and the suspicions starts to build.”
In addition to the 1929 play, “Rope” was adapted into a film, released in 1948 and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
One constant of the story is that it unfolds over the course of a dinner party — two hours of story time that translate to two hours of real time. Peters said the studio theater where the show will be presented lends itself well to a one-location play, too.
“It’s in the studio theater, so the setting is minimal. It’s the second floor parlor of the section of London, which is equivalent to the Upper East Side of New York,” he said. “It’s a continuous time, so when the play opens it’s 20 of 9 and when the play ends it’s a quarter to 11.”
The cast features Greg Crawford, Molly Miller, Cole Myers, John Henry Steelman, Sam Thinnes, Laila Tyler and Giancarlo Zingarelli — a group Peters said is “a very experienced cast.”
Peters also said the show will challenge viewers, in that they know there is a dead body in the room of the party and yet they are waiting to see if the main characters get away with the murder.
“They invite the boy’s father in and feel that they are so smart that they have planned the perfect crime and they are doing this to prove their intellectual superiority,” Peters said. “It demonstrates the dangers of arrogance and the feeling of superiority.”
