While being quite dark and intriguing, both literally and figuratively, the first production of the year by the MTHS drama department was interesting to say the least. “Wait Until Dark” was performed in the MTHS theater Thursday, Nov. 19 through Saturday, Nov. 21. It was a play involving many unique aspects, from near complete darkness in the theater to real matches being lit onstage.

“Having it almost completely dark is definitely more difficult, but I kind of mapped out the house and [got] a good idea,” junior Haley Wiseman said.

Wiseman played the role of Susy Hendrix, the blind woman and protagonist of the story. Her character receives immense amounts of help from Gloria, a young girl who was friends with the Hendrix family.

The fact that Susy is blind means that the acting of her has to be commensurate to her condition. Acting as a blind person isn’t easy, as you can imagine.

“It’s difficult because I don’t have other actors to work off of very much, so I just have to keep my head down and not look at anybody’s face,” Wiseman said.

The other three main characters were the three antagonists of the story, who were trying to outsmart Susy.

The whole play revolves around a conflict created by a misplaced heroin-filled doll, which frighteningly ends up in the hands of a blind woman. The doll itself is harmless, but three con men are under pursuit of this doll. The problem arises when they figure out that they don’t actually know the location of the doll, but they know it’s in the possession of the Hendrix family.

The play starts with a meeting between the three con men. The leader, Harry Roat, recruits the other two for the job of recovering the doll. This first part of the play was more comedy than anything else and was a good way to set the mood and get the audience to feel comfortable.

As the plot furthers, there are many interesting moments of foreshadowing.

Susy begins to pick up on the strange actions the con men exhibit in her home, everything from Sgt. Carlino’s dusting off of his own fingerprints to the closing and opening of her blinds to signal Roat.

Though Susy is blind, she is not dumb, and eventually pieces together the puzzle of what the men are actually up to in her apartment.

The play is essentially a constant passive aggressive battle between the three villains, who are trying to convince Susy to give them the doll, and Susy, who is trying to keep herself safe.

Susy ends up trusting Mike Talman, the con man played by sophomore Matt Correa, more than the other two by far.Luckily for her, he isn’t anywhere near as devious as Roat, played by senior Tyler Grabarczyk.

Talman doesn’t harm Susy and is ready to leave her alone, but before he can leave the house he is killed by Roat, who had also taken out Sgt. Carlino by that time. Roat was the truly heartless one.

Everything reaches a climax at this point and the fight between Susy and Roat commences.

The fight was well choreographed and had people at the edge of their seats, eventually ending with Susy’s horrific screams as Roat lunged for her.

Roat ultimately fails to reach her and dies soon after, leaving Susy with her narrow escape from death.

The performance was good overall and had the right balance of comedy, mystery and thriller elements.

“I think that the second night was better, but overall the show was amazing,” Grabarczyk said.

Also, it was good to see some of the newer cast members in increasingly more important roles.

“That’s kind of the idea here, I try to give as many kids experience and opportunity as possible. I don’t believe in just giving the same kids the roles all the time,” drama department director Jeannie Brzovic said.

The most exciting parts to the play were the more unconventional parts. The small and some bigger stunts that had to be choreographed for were very entertaining to watch.

“My favorite part about it is like, the child in me likes this [scene] where I’m playing with the matches. I lit three matches at that time and I was like ‘This is going to burn me,’”  Grabarczyk said.

The next show that drama will be performing is a play called “Moon Over Buffalo.” It’s a comedy, and more specifically a farce, which is sure to be enjoyable and funny.