I’ve long been a fan of writer Lucille Fletcher. Her iconic radio drama “The Hitch-Hiker” is an Orson Welles classic which was adapted for television in the first season of The Twilight Zone. Among of her radio dramas is “Sorry, Wrong Number” which starred Agnes Moorehead long before she was Endora to this generation. She only penned three plays for stage: one act renditions of The Hitch-Hiker and Sorry, Wrong Number and a two-act thriller in 1973, Night Watch, which was also adapted for the screen, starring Elizabeth Taylor. It’s currently onstage at Lancaster Opera House to October 26, and perhaps the story itself is too much a product of its time because as a psychological thriller (one of my favorite genre), it’s not all that thrilling.

It’s the story of heiress Elaine Wheeler, a chain-smoking insomniac, already on her second husband after the accidental death of hubby numero uno who was canoodling with their neighbor. While staring out the window of their New York City high rise, she think she sees the head of a dead man…and later the body of a dead woman. Multiple calls to NYPD are fruitless, and her husband is convinced she needs psychiatric help with a long-term stay in a facility to “rest,” a sentiment shared with bestie Blanche who is also a nurse. Her loyal maid and a nosy neighbor disagree: they aren’t exactly on team husband. Suffice it to say, there are twists and turns in the script with some theatrical devices that will make you think of the 1944 George Cukor film Gaslight.

All the right elements were in place to have you on the edge of your seat and gripping your Theatre Companion’s hand for solace. Sadly, something didn’t quite come together for me. Alas, I rested comfortably in my chair throughout with only an intermission Hershey bar wrapper clutched in my hand. Le sigh.

I know the cast and director David Bondrow gave it their all, but something about this interpretation didn’t hang together for me. Maybe it’s because Elaine’s visions were out a side window and in the audience, you only experienced her horror through her shrieks and screams. Candice Kogut paced and smoked and screamed like a champ. Her husband John was played by Rick Lattimer and the two seemed mismatched. Her bestie Blanche (Gabrielle Nunzio) looks more like her teenage stepdaughter than lifelong pal. Tara Kaczorowski is double-cast as the “psychiatrist” who comes to call and Helga the loyal maid, and while she visually transformed handily, she struggled with a consistent and convincing German accent for the latter. Scott Borish was triple cast as Curtis Appleby the nosy neighbor (he was a stitch! And more importantly, he showed great versatility and verve in each role. Bravo.) and two other small and essential roles. Johnny Rowe does a fine job as Lt. Walker, the exasperated police officer who fines nothing awry in the abandoned tenement across the street.

Maybe it was the visual aspects that just didn’t seem to work. The story was set in 1972 and the Wheeler’s home was more cluttered and dingy than NYC-’70s hip. Wardrobe looked a bit off, too, from fit to style. I know, we’re supposed to be transported by the story and script but the visual elements help create that theatre of the mind that leads our journey. There was a rather awkward half-wall in the set which took me half of the first act to figure out why it was there. There was another uncomfortable few moments in the second act when the actors ran from the set to check out the tenement across the street, and the audience stared at an empty room…for a few minutes that felt like an eternity. Like watching OJ’s white Bronco crawl on on the LA freeway, we couldn’t not watch because we knew something was on the cusp of happening.

Night Watch is a classic and for those who are more familiar with the film than the original stage play, it’s always a good idea to see that first body of work to appreciate what the playwright envisioned. Get the details and tickets at http://www.lancasteropera.org.