The creepy janitor (Bill Normyle) has a proposition for sweet and innocent Rhoda (Anna Cibrian) as the Monmouth Players present the 1950’s suspenser ‘The Bad Seed,’ starting Saturday at Navesink Arts.
Following a December detour into holiday-themed comedy, the Monmouth Players resume their 2015-’16 “Season of Suspense” in signature style this Saturday with the first of eight performances of a drama that thrilled Broadway audiences more than 60 years ago — right around the time that the players were beginning their incredible run as the area’s longest continuously operating theatrical troupe.
It’s The Bad Seed, Maxwell Anderson’s chiller adapted from the novel of the same name by William March (and adapted in turn as an Oscar-nominated 1956 movie). Mounted on the company’s longtime home stage at the Navesink Arts Center in Middletown, it’s a slice of Eisenhower-era Americana that suggests that looks may, in fact, be deceiving: that even a wholesome blonde in pigtails can mask impulses and desires as alien as anything in the Commie/Martian-invaded nightmares of the typical ’50s happy homemaker.
Players president Paul Renick directs the production, which continues through February 21, with a cast toplined by next-generation player Anna Cibrian as Rhoda Penmark — the seemingly perfect child whose mother, Christine, is beginning to suspect might just be a sociopath with a taste for mischief and even murder.
The one person who appears to “get” her is Leroy, a boorish troll of a janitor with a petty sadistic streak of his own. played by the ever-charming redbankgreen commenter Bill Normyle. Real-life mom/fellow player Kelly Cibrian (who co-starred in last November’s Laura) and dad Jack Cibrian are cannily cast as as parents Christine and Kenneth. Also in the cast are David Bell, Kevin Huelbig, Robert Kern, Sue Morgan, Lori Renick and Nancy Viola.
A low-key suspenser — one that was way ahead of its time in dealing with topics like sinister progeny and the genetic traits of serial killers — The Bad Seed is served up (with the players’ famous spread of homemade desserts to sweeten the deal) at 8:15 p.m. on February 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20, and at 2 p.m. on February 7, 14 and 21. Required reservations ($20; $17 for seniors and students; $10 for veterans) can be made here or by calling (732) 291-2911.
