‘Rear Window’ recreates voyeuristic suspense

A single spotlight illuminated the left side of the stage, where a man sat in a wheelchair, his leg in a cast, talking on the phone. More lights popped up as he talked, calling the audience's attention to different silent scenes set up around (and above) the performance space. A ballet dancer exercised, a woman drank alone in her room, an amorous couple shut their curtain and another couple yelled at one another in heated argument. Soon it dawned on me that these scenes were representations of what was being viewed by the man through his neighbors' windows. But through this innocent hobby, he involuntarily witnesses suspicious activities that he interprets as the makings of a terrible murder. And so the thrills begin in Unbound's production of "Rear Window" on opening night last Thursday.

The man in the wheelchair, a photographer named Mr. Jefferies (Max Fagin '10), convinces his girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Arianna Gass '13), his nurse Stella McGaffery (Siobhan Reddy-Best '13) and his detective friend Tom Doyle (Daniel Lemke '10) that his neighbor Lars Thorwald (Evan Kaplan '10) murdered his wife. They all soon set out to investigate the murder, putting their own lives in danger in the process. For those of you who are not familiar with Alfred Hitchcock's work, his films are known for being masterful combinations of humor and suspense. It is the recreation of that suspense on stage that became the greatest challenge for the cast and crew of "Rear Window," directed by Lizy Yagoda '10 and performed in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater last weekend.

In a film, suspense is easier to build up. The camera allows the audience to gain more knowledge about the dramatic situation than the protagonists. This makes the audience feel uneasy knowing that something bad is about to happen, but powerless to prevent it from happening. This kind of suspense was Hitchcock's trademark technique, something that was recreated very successfully in the stage production of "Rear Window." The clever stage by Caroline Picher '13 and lighting design by Medha Sahi '13 gave the audience a false sense of voyeurism. When the lights went on in Thornwald's apartment, I followed his suspicious activity and hoped that Jefferies was looking through that window, too, to witness what was going on. But of course there were times when we could see that Jefferies was distracted and not looking out of his window while something suspicious was going on. And if this kind of situation didn't increase the tension enough, the climactic ending sure did; I watched through the window alongside the panic-stricken Jefferies as Fremont hid in Thornwald's apartment as the murderer himself entered his abode and then later followed Thornwald as he entered Jefferies' apartment.

The excitement-filled world of Manhattan in 1954 came alive in this production through props and costumes (designed by Emily Leimkuhler '10) reminiscent of the time. But suspense could not have been created without good acting. And while I think every actor did a wonderful job at bringing forth both the humorous and the thrilling aspects of the story, I couldn't help but be enormously impressed by all the silent acting involved in the production. Throughout almost the entire play, we could only hear Jefferies, Fremont, McGaffery and Doyle converse with clever wit. Every other character, however, was silent, with the actors mouthing entire dialogues. This really added to the audience following the action from the point of view of Jefferies. Through his window, he could only see, never hear, what was going on, and so could we. The voyeuristic element of the play worked so well because it made the audience feel like they were in on a secret throughout the play.