Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

|| High Country Press Newswire

LATEST REGIONAL HEADLINES:

View All Ads For This Week »

AUGUST 6, 2009 ISSUE

Intense Thriller Angel Street Opens Friday4

Blowing Rock Stage Company Play Shows Through August 16

Story by Anna Oakes

Kim Cozort (right, in back) plays the role of Bella Manningham, whose domineering husband has all but convinced her that her sanity is disintegrating, in Angel Street, playing at the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock Friday, August 7, through Sunday, August 16.

After two comedies and one musical comedy this summer, the mood turns more serious as the Blowing Rock Stage Company moves on to its next play, the psychological thriller Angel Street. The company will perform the play Friday, August 7, through Sunday, August 16, at the Hayes Performing Arts Center.

Show times are 8:00 p.m. on Fridays; 8:00 p.m. on Saturdays with an additional 2:00 p.m. showing on August 15; 2:00 p.m. on Sundays with an additional 7:00 p.m. showing August 9; 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday and 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Angel Street, written in 1938 by playwright Patrick Hamilton, takes place in Victorian England and follows a sensitive, hapless woman—Bella Manningham—whose domineering husband has all but convinced her that her sanity is disintegrating. Pictures are rearranging themselves on the walls, jewelry is mysteriously misplaced and the gaslights dim on their own.

“[Director Kenneth Kay] really wanted to make this a throwback to a really, really good story,” said Kim Cozort, who plays the role of Bella. “The audience is just captivated, totally by plot and totally by language.”

Angel Street is one of the longest-running nonmusicals in Broadway history and spawned a new generation of spine-chillers, including such classics as Dial M for Murder, Wait Until Dark, The Bad Seed and Deathtrap. The 1944 Oscar-winning film Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman and Angela Lansbury, is based on the play.

Cozort has experience playing intense roles, sometimes as a murderer and sometimes as a victim.

“As an actress, this is a great challenge,” she said. “Musicals are a challenge, but this is an entirely different level of the craft.”

The setting, costumes and English dialects are also a challenge, she said, adding, “We literally transport the audience to Victorian England.”

Deathtrap, produced by the Blowing Rock Stage Company a few years ago, is the most successful straight play the company has ever done, Cozort said, which influenced Kay’s selection of Angel Street for this year’s summer season.

“Folks up here really love a good story, and this is one,” Cozort said.

Unlike Deathtrap, however, Angel Street doesn’t contain a lot of physical violence. Cozort said the thrilling part of the play comes from mind games and trying to determine if characters are really who they seem to be. The use of light is important in the play—“there are five physical actors, but the gaslight is definitely a character,” said Cozort.

Not to worry, though—you’ll have a chance to breathe during a few moments of comic relief.

“Hopefully the audience will be tense, and you’ve got to have those moments as a little bit of release,” Cozort said.

The cast also features Stage Company veterans Stephen T. Ware (Jan Karon’s Journey to Mitford) and Viki Boyle (The Immigrant).

On opening night, the Hayes Center will offer heavy hors d’oeuvres courtesy of Glidewell’s restaurant in the outside courtyard at the Hayes Center from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. (In the event of rain, a tent will be erected or the event will be moved into the lobby.) Cost is $10 per person (pay in advance or at the door). Additional dinner and show packages starting at $82 per couple are also available at Glidewell’s, Bistro Roca, Crippen’s and the Manor House at Chetola.

Tickets are $26 for adults and $14 for students. Special group rates are also available (10 person minimum). Season and Flex Passes can be purchased and used throughout the entire 2009 season.

The Hayes Center is located at 152 Jamie Fort Road off Highway 321 in Blowing Rock. For tickets or more information, call 828-295-9627 or click to www.HayesCenter.org.