Playwright: adapted by Rob Kauzlaric from the novel by Wilkie Collins. At: Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood. Phone: 761-4477; $32-$35. Runs through: March 27
It's a statement of fact, not idle nostalgia, to say that they don't write stories like this any more. Wilkie Collins' Victorian thriller shares credit with Poe's Gold Bug as the prototype for the detective story genre, but whodunits in 1868 were expected to provide several weeks of ruminative reading, each new revelation being only a small step toward actually solving the crime. And so, given the length and intricacy of the source material, Rob Kauzlaric's two-and-three-quarter-hour adaptation (with two intermissions) represents a model of verbal efficiency.
In the first 30 minutes we learn that a sacred diamond, stolen in India by a misanthropic colonialist, has brought misfortune and discord on his descendants, and that it is now in the possession of the lovely Miss Rachel Verinder, who wears it to a party attended by her two would-be suitorsthe urbane philanthropist, Godfrey Ablewhite, and the long-estranged Franklin Blake. The jewel is stolen from her boudoir that very night, after some mysterious Hindu entertainers are sighted in the vicinity, whereupon a housemaid with a shady past begins to behave erratically, even as the burglary victim refuses to co-operate with the private investigator summoned to identify the culprit.
Our shamus has plenty of help. The compulsion to join in the search for the thiefwhat the family steward dubs, "detective fever"is as universal as it is irresistible. The novel's epistolary structure is rendered on the stage by a bevy of serial narrators, none of whom are above interrupting one another's testimony to dispute order of disclosure or to hint at further information to come. Far from confusing playgoers likewise stricken with the sleuthing malady, this device serves to keep the raconteurs firmly on track as they guide us through a universe where substances frowned on todaye.g. opiates and tobaccowere commonplace.
This brand of boat-in-the-bottle drama is Lifeline's stock-in-trade: Paul S. Holmquist's direction makes for an always-uncluttered stage picture (as do the dressers responsible for converting the 11 actors into twice that number of characters in mere seconds). Together with Ian Zywica's multiple-level scenic designencompassing locales ranging from the exotic Orient to the foggy marshes of northern EnglandCristina DeRisi's cello-based score of somnolent incidental music, and Brandon Wardell's shadowy lighting, they create an atmosphere of suspense to rivet our curiosity for every swiftly paced minute leading up to a satisfying resolution.