It’s been a “Season of Suspense” that mixed equal dollops of Murder Most Foul and Farce Most Frantic — and beginning this Saturday, the Monmouth Players close out their 2015-16 slate of shows in Middletown with a relatively little-known British import that boasts elements of each.
Kelly Cibrian, Jeff Caplan and Bill Lee star, as the Monmouth Players continue their Season of Suspense with the classic mystery of LAURA.
A murdered woman of mystery, who may or may not lie so easy in the grave. A detective obsessed with the memory of someone he never met. A philandering fiancee and a set of acid-tongued, duplicitous friends that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst frenemy. When Hollywood began producing its great run of film noir classics in the 1940s, Vera Caspary’s novel Laura was ready and made to order; forming the foundation of an Otto Preminger production that boasted the otherworldly beauty of Gene Tierney, the square-jawed stoicism of Dana Andrews, the suave snake-oil of Clifton Webb and Vincent Price, plus a haunting title theme for the ages — the stuff that movieland’s darkest dreams were made of.
Laura was also a stage play, adapted by author Caspary herself in cahoots with George Sklar — and beginning this weekend, the rarely revived drama receives a new airing, courtesy of the Monmouth Players and their incredible-but-true 62nd season as the area’s longest continuously operating theatrical troupe.