Role Players Ensemble’s Laura
Director Eric Fraisher Hayes gives Vera Caspary’s Broadway play Laura the noir treatment in Danville’s Village Theatre.
Eden Neuendorf plays Laura, the woman everyone wants but no one knows. She attracts men but uses her proximity to declare her independence, to duel with them, running hot and cold. The play’s sharpest ironies are her cutting rejoinders.
Tom Reilly plays Waldo Lydecker as a lofty intellectual, dueling with his rivals, one-upping each man in witty put-downs.
Khary Moye plays Detective Mark McPherson, the man whose job is objective knowledge but is drawn into Laura's intriguing net. Moye is persistent in his quest yet not aloof, playing his physical presence for more than just the solution of the case.
Craig Eychner plays Shelby, Laura’s self-destructive fiancé who is no closer to the object of his desire than any other man on stage. Eychner is mercurial, becoming aggressively brutal and then smoldering in impotence fueled by whiskey.
Loralee Windsor plays Bessie Clay, the house mother, anchoring Laura’s home, admitting and throwing out guests, serving refreshments, and conserving reputation.
Ben Oldham plays the young man Danny, pursuing Laura by wanting to steal her hot music.
Janice Fuller plays Mrs. Dorgan, the landlady and Tom Leone plays Olsen the top cop.
The characters are very distinct from one another. Their physical appearance, costuming and way of speaking distance one from another in such a way that, while love seems possible, reality is a set of singular, independent people threatened with isolation.
Laura is a modern story. At least one person succeeds solving the mystery and also it is the story of a person (Laura) who rises from adversity to become who she really is.
The Role Players Ensemble's ambitious program in Danville includes Eugene O’Neill, Tom Stoppard, and the Gilbert and Sullivan duet.
The Village Theatre is showing the paintings and sculpture of Pamela Stefl Toki and John Toki.
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