Review of Rope, Hartford Stage
Let us now praise amazing sets: Riw Rakkulchon, who has presented incredibly handsome and detailed sets at Hartford Stage for All My Sons and The Mousetrap, has created a playing space that suits so well the action and the style of the play Rope as to be almost a seventh character—or is that eighth, since the seventh should by all rights be the unseen young man who appears to be late to a dinner party, then has gone missing, then . . .
The Cast of Rope, Hartford Stage; photo by T. Charles Erickson, set by Riw Rakkulchon
Rope, in its world premiere at Hartford Stage through November 2, is Jeffrey Hatcher's swift and superlative adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's Rope's End (1929), a play I've never read nor seen, which was adapted into a film, called Rope (1948), directed by Alfred Hitchcock (which I did see, once upon a time). All three—Rope, the play, Rope's End, and Rope, the film—bear not a little resemblance to the circumstances surrounding the so-called "crime of the century" back in the 1920s, the famed case known as Leopold and Loeb which, for my money, was best dramatized in the film Compulsion (1959), directed by Richard Fleischer, from a novel about the murder written by Meyer Levin. The latter film was not so much about the murder itself, nor the macabre dinner party hosted by the conspiring killers (the chief event in the original play and in Hitchcock's film and now in Hatcher's version), but rather about the sentencing hearing, in which Clarence Darrow, who defended the duo in real life and kept them from being condemned to death, is played memorably by Orson Welles, with the young would-be Übermenschen played by Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell.
Rope, in the hands of Hatcher and director Melia Bensussen, is a mightily entertaining winner. Their previous collaboration, a gripping adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that was both faithful and innovative, started off Hartford Stage's 2024-25 season. Now, they're back! The production is great to look at: in addition to Rakkulchon’s striking contribution, Risa Ando's Costume Design gives each character a particular style and it's a real pleasure to see such a lovely 1920s dress; Mary Louise Geiger's Lighting Design is impeccable, with lightning design as well, given appropriate thunder in Jane Shaw's Sound Design, and her original musical composition gives us a nicely placed piano interlude. The play's action abounds in graceful touches both verbal and physical, and is dramatic and at times comic, and so very expertly paced. In the playbill Hatcher notes that Hamilton's play, with its three act structure, is "a little creaky." If so, his and Bensussen's version makes sure we don't have time to notice any signs of structural weakness. It crackles and cranks rather than creaks.
Lewis (Ephraim Birney), Brandon (Daniel Neale) in Rope, Hartford Stage; photo by T. Charles Erickson
We're faced at once with the fact of the violent demise of an acquaintance of two men who are about to host a dinner party before making their grand getaway. In real life, Loeb and Leopold were college students who killed—in pursuit of the "perfect crime"—an adolescent cousin of Leopold's, to prove their superiority. Here, the duo, called Brandon (the mastermind) and Lewis (a composer), are older and, it seems, a thoroughly haute-bourgeois couple.
Brandon (Daniel Neale), Meriel (Fiona Robberson), Mr. Kentley (James Riordan) in Rope, Hartford Stage; photo by T. Charles Erickson
The dinner guests are forced to take their refreshments off a rather ponderous trunk quite capable of concealing a corpse. Present are: Meriel (Fiona Robberson), the fiancée of the missing guest, Mr. Kentley (James Riordan), his father, and Kenneth (Nick Saxton), a friend who may have interests of his own in Meriel. The more significant guest is Rupert Cadell (Mark Benninghofen), a former teacher of Brandon and Lewis, who perhaps knows how their minds work better than they think he does.
Rupert Cadell (Mark Benninghofen), Brandon (Daniel Neale) in Rope, Hartford Stage; photo by T. Charles Erickson
Bookish, cultured, and oh-so arch, Daniel Neale's Brandon has panache to spare, his every move a study in smooth civility, ironically charged, while Ephraim Birney's Lewis is less unflappable. And with good reason: Brandon's the type who, to prove his superior intellect, is liable to place a bit of evidence where it might easily be found. It's classic cat-and-mouse stuff, and watching Brandon and Lewis play their guests as dupes lets us in on a situation both appalling and intriguing. As with any whodunit, murder is all in good fun (until it isn't), giving the proceedings a ready morbid appeal. Here, we already know the culprits' identities, and we may be surprised to find we'd like to see them get away with it. (An effect more easily achieved as we never meet the victim.)
Lewis (Ephraim Birney), Kenneth (Nick Saxton) in Rope, Hartford Stage; photo by T. Charles Erickson
Cadell, who walks with a cane, is a bit of a Columbo, a bit of a Porfiry (from which Columbo derived), and is mostly a former mentor, invited so that the criminal conspirators will have a last chance to outwit him. Cadell's gradual sense that there is a challenge implied in the entire setup is what keeps us engaged, and Benninghofen gives Cadell enough bristly truculence to make us uncertain whether he's onto something or not.
Rupert Cadell (Mark Benninghofen) in Rope, Hartford Stage; photo by T. Charles Erickson
All the actors fully inhabit the characters that Hatcher's nimble dialogue lets them be, upholding the soigné tone of the evening, letting us into the world of people who are always polite, reassuring, and maybe, at times, a bit sinister. The deftness of giving us just enough entertaining repartee while also making us watch out for any slip-ups by the killers or any stumbles-upon-something by the guests is what makes the wheels of this conniving contraption spin.
As with last year's Jekyll and Hyde, Rope is about the evil that may be lurking below the surface. In both plays, there's a central character or two who is compelled to go beyond the bounds of behavioral norms and of commonly held mores. Rope is a play well-armed with knowledge of how those who consider themselves elite may in fact have feet of clay as well as hearts of stone. And that's worth considering and is, in its way, reassuring.
Brandon (Daniel Neale), Meriel (Fiona Robberson) in Rope, Hartford Stage; photo by T. Charles Erickson
Rope
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
Based on the play Rope's End by Patrick Hamilton
Directed by Melia Bensussen
Scenic Design: Riw Rakkulchon; Costume Design: Risa Ando; Lighting Design: Mary Louise Geiger; Sound Design & Original Composition: Jane Shaw; Wig & Makeup Design: Jodi Stone; Fight Director: Ted Hewlett; Voice & Dialect Coach: Jennifer Scapetis-Tycer; Casting: Alldaffer & Donadio Casting; Production Stage Manager: Nicole Wiegert; Assistant Stage Manager: Julius Cruz; Associate Artistic Director: Zoë Golub-Sass; Director of Production: Bryan T. Holcombe; General Manager: Emily Van Scoy
Cast: Mark Benninghofen, Ephraim Birney, Daniel Neale, James Riordan, Fiona Robberson, Nick Saxton
Hartford Stage
October 10-November 2, 2025