Last night we opened the season of Neil LaBute’s In a Dark, Dark House at Red Stitch.

It’s been an intense rehearsal period on this show, given that we had about four weeks from the first reading till bump-in, (traditionally it’s five weeks at the Stitch) and if you ask me a week from now it’ll be a far more ripe production.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a good run, but there were some slow points and underworked moments that just need to settle in. Wayne Pearn is an exceptional director, but my feeling was that he felt the pressure of short time in rehearsals whether he showed it outwardly or not, particularly in the last week. The fact is there was a lot of text for the actors to learn, and we were a little stuck for a while until they had it all down.

But all in all it’s a beautiful play, and it’s filled with some beautiful moments that made the crowd gasp as the web unravelled before their eyes. It’ll be interesting to see it mature over the course of the season.