Jack Grinhaus, director of The Lodger by Susie Moloney and Vern Thiessen, wrote a note in the program that resonates. He mentions a quote by Alfred Hitchcock: “There is a difference between surprise and suspense. Surprise is when a bomb goes off at the end of a story. Suspense is when the audience is told that the bomb will go off in five minutes at the beginning of the story.” That captures this world premiere, based on the novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes and inspired by Hitchcock’s 1927 film. It’s like the audience knows there is a bomb about to go off, but doesn’t know when it’s going to happen.
Hitchcock’s original adaptation is set in the 1920s and this version is set in the 1970s. The premise is the same. A serial killer is targeting young women who are alone on the streets of the city. The things they seem to have in common is that they are brunettes and they part their hair a certain way. It’s terrifying the community, including Ellen (Lauren Brotman) who works as a waitress and has to take the bus to get to her job. Her husband Bill (David Haysom) is looking for work and lands a job that has him away for two weeks at a time. Ellen’s best friend Joannie (Norma Lewis) is a cop, new to the job and on the task force looking for the killer. Ellen is thrilled when a stranger, a professor named Laurence (Tyrell Crews), winds up renting her spare room upstairs, because the extra income pays the bills and allows her to breathe financially. It all comes to a head when Bill’s sister Daisy (Grace Fedorchuk) announces that she’s coming to town to check out the local college where she has been accepted. Tension escalates, the killer is still at large, and every man is a suspect.
The suspense in The Lodger is built through technical design. This play wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for Narda McCarroll’s lighting design and MJ Dandeneau’s sound design and composition. Dandeneau’s beating heart design and the sound effects of someone getting stabbed to death, along with the eerie greens and blues of McCarroll’s design, brings the tension to a knife point. Scott Reid’s clever set design allows us to see Crews both in the room upstairs and the bedroom on the main floor. John Inglesias ensures that the costumes set us in the 70s, illustrating how Ellen and Bill are living modestly in their simple house.
The cast is like a well oiled machine in this production. Brotman shoulders most of the weight, strong and independent as Ellen, while showing how her life is like a prison, married to a man who threatens violence if she steps even a little bit out of line. She’s just getting by. Haysom fills the role of the simple man that is Bill… drink beer, work hard and be menacing when needed. There is a softness to his character though, and that comes out when he’s with Fedrochuk’s Daisy. She shows Daisy’s innocence and strength really well. It’s always nice to see Lewis on stage and she shows a different kind of strength in Jo. Crews rounds out the cast, providing contrast and mystery.
In light of current events, The Lodger brushes softly against questions that are at the forefront of society right now. Jo even asks the question in the play, but it’s too soft. The Lodger doesn’t aim to be a hard hitting commentary on violence against women, it’s a murder mystery – and that’s fine. But the bomb that goes off isn’t a mystery. It’s a letdown. It’s all the more disappointing when the murderer is revealed because the tension just dissipates.
But the theatricality of the play is quite the experience.
Vertigo Theatre’s The Lodger runs until October 25. More information is available online.
Photo: David Haysom, Tyrell Crews, Lauren Brotman, Photo by Fifth Wall Media