Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play

Suspense, intrigue, murder, and a touch of dark humor have come to the Westport Community Theatre stage with Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play, now playing through October 4 at Westport Town Hall.

Adapted for the stage by Fairfield playwright Joe Landry, Vintage Hitchcock transforms three early Alfred Hitchcock thrillers – The Lodger, Sabotage, and The 39 Steps – into a 1940s-style radio broadcast performed before a live audience.

A mysterious killer stalks the streets of London. A devastating explosion sets a deadly plot in motion. And an innocent man finds himself pursued across Britain in a breathless chase. Rather than attempting to recreate Hitchcock’s films onstage, Vintage Hitchcock uses the imaginative possibilities of radio theatre to tell the stories in an entirely different way – through voices, music, sound effects, and the audience’s own imagination.

The seven-member cast moves among multiple roles, voices, and characters as the three stories unfold, creating the world of Hitchcock with microphones, scripts, music, and an elaborate soundscape.

Directed by Richard Mancini and stage managed by Patricia A. Berg, the production features Joan Barere, John Bachelder, Roger Dykeman, Linda Gilmore, Ann Kinner, Sam Mink, and Tom Rushen. The production also features an original musical score by composer and writer Paul Richard Keegan.

Westport Community Theatre’s 69th season includes Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play, Betrayal, Happy Days, Summer, 1976, What the Constitution Means to Me, and Catch-22.