If you know “Rope” at all, it’s probably as a 1948 Alfred Hitchcock movie starring Jimmy Stewart, which was famous for being shot in what appeared to be one continuous take. That innovative film was based on an equally suspenseful 1929 play by Patrick Hamilton, the writer who gave us the term “gaslighting” (from his play “Gas Light”) and the supremely dark novel “Hangover Square” that anticipated World War II.
Hartford Stage is opening its 2025-26 season with the world premiere of new adaptation of Hamilton’s “Rope,” Oct. 10 through Nov. 2. Jeffrey Hatcher, a prolific playwright known for his deft adaptations and updates of classic dramas, has lightly revamped “Rope.” The theater’s artistic director Melia Bensussen, who has worked on and off with Hatcher for decades, directs the production.
Hartford Stage’s “Rope” restores the play’s setting to the 1920s, when it was written. The Hitchcock version was set in the 1940s, when the film was made. There was never a desire to shift the crime drama to the present day. “When you update you get into weird contemporary ideas that can trip it up,” Hatcher said.
Ephraim Birney as Lewis in the world premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s “Rope” at Hartford Stage. (Miceli Productions)
Some of the characters’ names have been changed for Hatcher’s version but the story is the same: Two young men have done an awful thing, largely for the thrill of it. They hold a dinner party so they can flaunt their feelings of superiority while keeping their nefarious deed concealed. One of the dinner guests is a former teacher of theirs. The conversation turns to questions of morality and intellectual purpose.
One of the dastardly duo, Lewis, is played by Ephraim Birney, whom audiences know from two shows he did at TheaterWorks Hartford. Birney was in TheaterWorks’ virtual production of Adam Rapp’s “The Sound Inside” during the COVID shutdown in 2021, then played a Mohawk-coiffed security guard in the time-shifting art/philosophy comedy “The Rembrandt” in 2023.
Daniel Neale plays Brandon, Lewis’ partner in crime. Mark Benninghoffen has the role of the professor Rupert Cadell, played by Jimmy Stewart in the “Rope” film. The cast also includes Fiona Robberson (who played Annie in Bensussen’s production of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” last year), Nick Sexton and James Riordan.
Nick Saxton (left) and Ephraim Birney rehearsing “Rope” at Hartford Stage. The mystery thriller runs Oct. 10 through Nov. 2. (Lucas Clopton)
“Rope” requires a special mood for Birney, one he describes as “grim and macabre.” He likes the mix of light conversation and heavy themes that this 1920s drama can accommodate. “I have always been drawn to that period in general,” the actor said.
Both Hatcher and Birney note that the cocktail conversation of “Rope” has a frothy Noel Coward aspect to it, but unlike a Coward play, there’s a dark Hitchcockian underbelly.
Hamilton’s drama was clearly inspired by one of the most sensational crimes of the early 20th century, when University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Leopold and Loeb believed they were committing “the perfect crime” but were quickly caught and convicted.
“Leopold and Loeb come up” naturally in the way “Rope” unfurls, Hatcher and Birney said, adding that the dialogue could make audiences also think of the “Man and Superman” theories of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and psychological dramas by Jean Genet and George Bernard Shaw.
In some of his adaptations, Hatcher has found new theatrical forms to help enliven the old stories. Hartford Stage did his version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” last year, in which each member of the acting ensemble plays the evil Hyde character at some point in the show. For his adaptation of the Frederick Knott mystery “Dial M for Murder” (which, like “Rope,” was turned into a Hitchcock film), Hatcher played with the gender dynamics of the drama. “Dial M for Murder” was the final play directed by Mark Lamos at Westport Country Playhouse before his retirement in 2023.
Creative choices bring about one of the most exciting CT fall theater seasons in years
Other Hatcher adaptations have been more conventional. One of his best-known plays is the stage version of Mitch Albom’s memoir “Tuesdays with Morrie,” which Westport Country Playhouse presented just last month and Playhouse on Park did in 2015.
Hatcher wrote the book for the musical biography “Ella,” about Ella Fitzgerald, which TheaterWorks Hartford world premiered in 2005. The show became a hit with a national tour and several returns to Connecticut, including a run at the Long Wharf Theatre in 2010. The Long Wharf had its own Hatcher world premiere in 2012 when it produced his adaptation of Frank Marcus’ “The Killing of Sister George.”
Regarding “Rope,” Hatcher said he didn’t have to adapt it much at all. “All credit to Patrick Hamilton,” Hatcher said. The main reshaping he did was to lose the original three-act form so that “Rope” now runs 90 minutes with no intermission.
“Three acts was just too long,” Hatcher said. “The curtains between the acts didn’t have any suspense.”
No breaks means he could play with the idea of the evening proceeding in real time, unimpeded, much like the one-take Hitchcock film.
The other big restructuring he felt the play needed, Hatcher said, is that it felt too crowded so he cut two minor characters.
Hatcher makes clear that his “Rope” is strictly an adaptation of the Hamilton play and not of the Hitchcock film. The film was adapted by Hume Cronyn (who got a “story by” credit) and Arthur Laurents, who wrote the screenplay. While the play is now in the public domain, the film is not. “There’s stuff in there I would happily steal, but I do not have the rights to it,” Hatcher said.
Riw Rakkulchon’s set design for “Rope” at Hartford Stage. (Courtesy of Hartford Stage)
At Hartford Stage, Hatcher has been attending rehearsals and been doing rewrites. Birney joked that the playwright “brought in six pages the other day but the play seems to be getting shorter. There’s this funky Quantum Physics thing going on.” That’s due to how conversational the dialogue is and how comfortable the actors have gotten with the back-and-forth banter.
Birney said the production, under Bensussen’s direction, is both “intimate and distanced.” The scenic design by Riw Rakkulchon has a couple of platform levels and the dialogue can get both quiet and shouty, a nice challenge for an actor. For his part, Hatcher observed that “the funny thing about stage thrillers is that in the writer’s mind they’re always happening on a proscenium,” while Hartford Stage is known for its low thrusting stage.
Given that “Rope” was a hit when it first was done in the ‘20s. The Hitchcock “Rope” still has its own loyal fan base. Stories of sensational crimes draw bigger audiences than ever due to podcasts like “True Crime” and “Crime Junkie” and “Dateline.” Murder mysteries are making a big comeback at regional theaters — including at Hartford Stage, which besides “Rope” and “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” has done two Agatha Christie shows in the past decade. You don’t have to be an ace detective to see the potential here.
“This show is really exciting,” Birney said. “People will like it.”
“There’s a hunger for thrillers,” Hatcher added. And he could add that this one even has a dinner party.
“Rope” by Patrick Hamilton, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Melia Bensussen, runs Oct. 10 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. 18, 25, 29 and Nov. 1. $20-$105. hartfordstage.org.
