He keeps messing up the perfect murder plot by inserting himself into Guy’s life. The devious scheme largely fails because of Bruno’s dysfunction. Michael Mullen is great as Bruno, the spoiled and privileged son who resents his father and dotes upon his mother Elsie (nicely played by Sharron Shayne). Bruno is more or less consistent across the adaptations, as a charming but psychotic villain who – fatally – becomes obsessed with Guy. The play restores Guy’s complexity and ambiguity, as he struggles with his guilt over his wife’s death. Warner’s play is almost a hybrid of the two versions, beefing up the Freudian analysis while sticking closer to the original novel than Hitchcock.Īdditionally, the novel portrays Guy as a weak and conflicted character who succumbs to Bruno’s pressure while the film presents Guy as more sympathetic and innocent. While the novel reads as a dark psychological thriller that explores the themes of guilt, obsession, and homoeroticism, in the hands of Hitchcock the story becomes more of a suspenseful film noir that focuses on the cat-and-mouse game between Bruno and the hapless Guy. There are some interesting differences between all three incarnations of Highsmith’s intriguing drama. Additionally, all three versions of the story imply that Bruno had a prior interest in Guy and orchestrated their encounter. Therefore, the meeting in Strangers on a Train is not a coincidence, but a calculated move by Bruno to target and entrap Guy in his twisted scheme. The play is divided into two acts, with the first act focusing on the build-up of the murder pact and the second act on the aftermath and consequences. To Guy’s dismay, the man now expects Haines to uphold his end of their “bargain” and kill Bruno’s father. Bruno, however, is convinced that the men had a firm agreement and proceeds to kill Haines’ trouble-making wife. Guy does not take the wild scheme seriously, and when the two men go their separate ways he feels confident that he will never hear from crackpot Bruno again. Could Bruno have invented a foolproof plan? Since the men are complete strangers, Bruno theorizes that no one will suspect either of them for the seemingly unrelated crimes. The two men converse and commiserate over their personal issues, whereupon Bruno suggests an idea for the perfect murder: each man will kill the inconvenient person in the other man’s life. There’s no need for this play to have an over two-and-a-half hours duration, ultimately diluting the suspense.Īrchitect Guy Haines (played by Joe Clabby) has a seemingly random encounter with a stranger, Charles Bruno (Michael Mullen), on a train. Unfortunately, this staging suffers from excruciatingly sluggish pacing and uneven performances. The current production of Strangers on a Train at Theater Forty is directed by Jules Aaron and runs through February 18, 2024, at the Mary Levin Cutler Theatre in Beverly Hills. The play also resolves with a different ending than both the novel and the film. Warner’s play is a more faithful adaptation of the novel than the film, thanks to its darker tone, far murkier morality, and a greater emphasis on the psychological features of the story. The iconic tale was adapted for radio in 2004 by Craig Warner, and he also adapted it for the stage, making its premier in London’s West End in 2013. Highsmith’s debut novel was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock the following year (1951), using a screenplay by Raymond Chandler (that he disavowed) and by other writers including Czenzi Ormonde, who collaborated with Hitchcock’s associate producer Barbara Keon and Alma Reville, Hitchcock’s wife, to get the script finalized within three weeks. Published in 1950, the psychological thriller charts how the lives of two men become inextricably enmeshed after a random meeting on a train. Patricia Highsmith created the now-common and devious story trope of the ‘murder swap’ for her first chilling novel, Strangers on a Train.
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