An intriguing and involving cat and mouse game is played on the dark and often sinister streets of London at the turn of the twentieth century between a practiced and proficient con-man and his unassuming and naïve victim. George Love, his name at the moment, has set his sights on a small brown wren of a woman, a milliner’s assistant, with just enough of a nest egg to be a plump plum for the plucking.
Until Sunday, September 9, TheaterWorks in Hartford will be offering this psychological thriller “Tryst” by Karoline Leach, set in Edwardian England, on their intimate stage, downstairs at 233 Pearl Street. Mark Shanahan’s George is cleverly cunning and slyly despicable as he lays out his scheme, like an intricate spider’s web to snare his latest female fly.
Andrea Maulella’s Adelaide is a wonderful contradiction of despair and dreams, a spinster who longs for love and marriage and a hat shop of her own but is too damaged by her father’s abuse to ever feel confident enough to snatch the gold ring.
George Love is a polished con artist who preys on vulnerable young women who have a purse of coins he can covet and count. He plans to woo them and wed them, give them one night of exquisite bliss in bed and then disappear with their life savings firmly tucked in his pocket.
With Adelaide, he finds the rules of the game have changed and it is those twists and unexpected turns that will have you guessing who will win the match. Perhaps they will both succeed in their quest or perhaps neither one will. Under Joe Brancato’s smooth direction, on a boarding house set designed by Michael Schweikardt, you will find yourself rooting for Adelaide to capture her dream.
For tickets ($50-63, student rush $17 if available), call TheaterWorks of Hartford at 860-527-7838 or online at www.theaterworkshartford.org. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Come early and enjoy the artwork “Variations” in the gallery upstairs sponsored by The Hartford Financial Services Group.
Melodramatic and melancholy, watch how an accomplished liar sets up a skillfully staged game of attraction to trap a gullible mouse with himself as the appetizing cheese.
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