Angel Street returns to WiLLow LeaVes for new run

Fans of local dinner theatre are invited out for a generous offering of suspenseful mystery seasoned with a bit of humor as the Passion for Acting Theatre Company’s presentation of “Angel Street” returns to the WILLow LeaVes of Hope stage this weekend.

It has been three years since the acting group first debuted this dramatic tale, says the play’s producer and director Connie Kiviniemi-Baylor.

Based on the 1939 book “Gas Light,” by Patrick Hamilton, “Angel Street” is set in Victorian England and chronicles a tale of manipulation, deception and depravity.

Mrs. Manningham is being gas lit by her husband to make her feel as if she is losing her mind. It is only when a former police detective makes her acquaintance when he visits the house that everything begins to make sense.

“He visits the wife and says, ‘You aren’t going insane, I think your husband is trying to drive you mad. This is what I suspect he has done in the past. Will you help me catch him?,’” Baylor explains.

Columbus resident Cheryl Baker is reprising her lead role as Mrs. Manningham and says Mr. Manningham intentionally deceives and tricks his wife to make her think she is losing her mind. For instance, in one scene there is talk of his missing cufflinks. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Manningham, he has purposely placed his cufflinks in her sewing box.

“He certainly has ulterior motives,” Baker says.

Jason Bowser, who is recast as Mr. Manningham, says this is one of his favorite characters to play.

“This character allows me to run the gambit of emotions and really cut loose on the stage,” he says.

Bowser says he is challenged to strike a balance between his character’s reactions to situations “so it builds to a climax and it doesn’t fizzle out to early without any place to go.”

Reprising a role has its merits and is all the better when you are able to return to the stage with the same or nearly-same cast, Baker says.

“I love to reprise a role because you find new things,” she says. “If you’ve got the same actors as before you kind of fall right back into it. You want to try to bring a little something different to the character.”

The play’s cast of seven agrees that the most difficult part about bringing late 19th century England to life is the language and not in the way one might think.

“It’s an English play so some of the language and phrasing is interesting,” says Gregory Andis, who returns as the character Detective Rough. “The real challenge has to do with the big speeches he has because sometimes he will go on for pages and pages talking about his suspicions and theories and kind of explaining things to Mrs. Manningham about the history of what is going on and suggesting to her that maybe what has been happening to her might be connected to this murder from 15 years earlier.”

Andis says he hopes audience members experience a little bit of suspense, a little humor and a bit of the thrill of the unknown.

“I hope they get sort of all of the above because the characters are not so intense that there’s not some giggles to be gotten out of it,” he says. “The character I play is sort of playful in the way he approaches the wife because he literally comes in and says, ‘You are the lady who is going off her head, aren’t you?’ and what he’s alluding to is the gaslighting that the husband is doing to her.”

Despite facing the challenges of a set build designed to recreate a Victorian mansion and literal gas-lit ambiance of evening-time London, Baylor couldn’t be happier with how the production and how well it is going.

“I have to tell you, the people who are starring in this play are phenomenal in their roles,” she says. “It is fun to see them bring their characters to life and the intensity they bring.”

As rehearsals wind down and opening night approaches, the cast of the nearly two-hour long production are hopeful for a full house.

“Obviously, we want the audience to be entertained,” Baker says. “We hope the plot twists keep them engaged and wondering how the play will end.

The second act is a roller coaster – you don’t know where it is going, so hopefully they will enjoy the ride.”