Today, 12 April 1994, by Bill Hagerty
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The trouble with *Rope* is that if you give the cast too 
much of it, they are likely to hang themselves.

Enthusiastic companies have been presenging Patrick 
Hamilton's psychological thriller since 1929 and with such 
relish have they plunged into its melodrama that it has 
become something of a cliche, a pot-boiler guaranteed to 
twang emotions while demanding little of the brain.

Over the top they went, like lemmings in greasepaint.

Director Keith Baxter saw more to this tale of motiveless 
murder, however, and mounted his sophisticated and taut 
production at Chichester last year.

How satisfying it would be to report that he has plucked 
the play from the pot and given us a revitalised *Rope* 
that's a hit, no strings attached.

Alas, despite Mr Baxter's decision to strip bare--literally 
in the opening scene--the homosexual passion for one 
another shared by the suave and arrogant killers, we end up 
with what is the same old stew with only a slightly 
different flavour. 

It is suspenseful all right and the previously unexamined 
relationship adds a certain frisson as the macabre story 
unfolds.

But the obscene contempt with which Brandon and Granillo 
conduct a party where food is served from the chest in 
which they have hidden the body smacks too much of 
undergraduate posturing to suggest that they are capable of 
anything more than a juvenile prank.

What we do get is two wonderfully starry performances.

Anthony Head, as Rupert Cadell, the languid poet wounded in 
the Great War who deduces the horror perpetrated by his 
young friends, is riveting, exploiting fully what is easily 
the best part.

And almost matching him is the huge chest, containing the 
guiltiest of secrets, which although not as animated as the 
hopalong Mr. Head--his walking stick has more thrust than 
some of the actors--dominates Simon Higlett's Mayfair 
drawing room set, where walls and windows lurch like a 
street drunk.

It's a most valient attempt, but ultimately the Rope trick 
isn't quite pulled off.



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