Presents

ROPE

at the

Charles Cryer Studio Theatre

39 High Street, Carshalton SM5 3BB

Thurs.16 th, Fri.17th & Sat.18th February 2006

BOX OFFICE TEL: 020 8770 6990

Tickets £7/£5 concs. Shows at 8pm nightly

 

ROPE was first produced in the United States as ROPE'S END in 1929. The story depicts two Oxford undergraduates who attempt the 'perfect murder' - they strangle a fellow scholar, to prove that they are above ordinary people. They then invite friends to a dinner party where they proceed to eat off of the trunk where the body still lies. The story had similarities with the notorious Richard Leopold and Nathan Loeb 'Killing for Kicks' murder case - they killed 14-year-old Bobbie Franks in 1924 purely for academic interest. Alfred Hitchcock had been toying with Hamilton's play since the mid-1930s, and finally adapted it for the screen in 1948. Hitchcock shot the film in a series of eight-minute continuous takes and this technical experiment dominated the whole result. James Stewart, playing the undergraduate’s former headmaster, Rupert Cadell, guesses their deadly secret, and realises that if he gives the two enough rope they will hang themselves. Although the homosexual aspect was not prominent, the film was banned in Chicago as well as in other towns like Seattle and Memphis. EXIT's version of this classic play will hopefully give the audience a modern twist on a traditional tale. Consistently entertaining for audiences, tense and even sometimes funny, not to be missed!

In the 1948 screen version of this play James Stewart starred in this highly charged thriller that has intrigued fans over the years because of its chilling subject (based on a true story) and unique "unedited" cinematic style. Two young men strangle a classmate for intellectual thrills and then proceed to invite his family and mutual friends to dinner with the body stuffed inside the trunk they use for a buffet table. EXIT's adapted version of this classic play will hopefully give the audience a modern twist on a traditional tale. Consistently entertaining for audiences, tense and even sometimes funny, not to be missed!