Brazen "catch-me-if-you-can" scheme plays out in the Hartford Stage world premiere of "Rope"

The mystery in Hartford Stage's world premiere of a new adaptation of "Rope" is not a matter of "who done it." The play opens as the guilty party of two - Brandon (Daniel Neale) and Lewis (Ephraim Birney) - gloat over the shared transgression of having just strangled their former prep-school chum - with elan! Adding to their ghoulish delight, Brandon, impeccably dressed in a 1920s zoot suit that accentuates his self-aggrandizing, engages his partner-in-crime with a plan to host a soiree of sorts - celebrating how cleverly the duo murdered the unfortunate bloke without admitting to the crime.

If that isn't hideous enough, Brandon and Lewis chat in close proximity to a large chest upon which finger sandwiches will soon be served and drinks placed by their unsuspecting guests. These include the dead man's father, Mr. Kentley (James Riordan), former fiancee and rather flirty Meriel (Flona Robberson), and Rupert (Mark Benninghofen), a prep-school housemaster familiar with the three former students. Audacity gives way to absurdity, since the murderers have spilled the beans to the audience that the body of the deceased rests inside the piece of furniture that will serve as the get-together's buffet table.

Brandon and Lewis think they have committed the perfect crime (similar to the real-life murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb). The shared bravado gives Brandon, especially, the chutzpah to brag without letting the cat out of the bag or, in this case, the corpse out of the chest. Libations flow and Brandon becomes more brazen, recalling Rupert's classroom debates about Christian morality and the Nietzsche notion of a ubermensch or "superman." The philosophy allows for a flexible moral code in which an elite race can generate its own set of values and beliefs to their advantage.. Rupert spars intellectually, hurling hitches in Brandon's egomaniacal theorizing, until theory gives way to an intense denouement.

Though Jeffrey Hatcher says he was introduced to the story via the Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film "Rope," it is Patrick Hamilton's 1929 play, "Rope's End," that most influenced his 2025 adaptation. In an interview with program dramaturgist Sophie Greenspan, Hatcher calls the three-act form of Hamilton's original work "a little creaky," where as today's audiences "need twists and turns and moments when the road drops out from under (them)."

And that it does, a number of times, in Hatcher's single act adaption staged under the meticulous direction of Melia Bensussen who worked with Hatcher last year in Hartford Stage's chilling "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Tension builds relentlessly in the one fell swoop of a single act played out in an upscale Mayfair flat, its walls tinged with blue-lit bookcases separated by a large window that illuminates the lightning storm outdoors (Riw Rakkulchon).

Those of us into the elements of theater recognize that a perfect example of dramatic irony is in play when an audience knows who committed the murder. . . in the library . . .with a rope , and the characters do not. However, they will have to wait to the very last moments of this psychological thriller to see whether or not Brandon and Lewis have committed the perfect crime.

“Rope” by Patrick Hamilton, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Melia Bensussen, runs through Nov. 2 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. with added 2 p.m. matinees on Oct. 29 and Nov. 1. $20-$105. hartfordstage.org.