Thrill Me

Thrill Me is an excellent production – with a stylish set by Daniel Harvey, innovative lighting by Jason Bovaird and terrific acting by Vincent Hooper and Stephen Madsen. Director Terence O’Connell expertly pulls the production together and Daniele Buatti handles the score beautifully on a lone piano. All of which surpass the actual material itself, but not the story it’s based upon.

Those of us who grew up in the fifties – or earlier – remember too well the infamous case of Leopold and Loeb and their murder of 14 year old Bobby Franks just for kicks. It formed the basis for Alfred Hotchcock’s Rope, as well as Compulsion just a few years later. Though the case belongs to the 1920s, this production presents it as a timeless tale. The question for me is whether the tale deserves re-telling, but I have to concede there may be some who have never heard it before.

Daniel Harvey’s set and wooden framework made entirely from Palettes works a treat. Jason Bovaird catapults the story into NOW with a contemporary lighting plot, which at times, backlighting the killers, dazzles us with the enormity and horror of the crime.

Vincent Hooper is impressive as the seemingly innocent and manipulated Leopold, willing to do anything for the love of Loeb…even signing a contract in his own blood. He has talent galore and nicely balances the simpering youth with the cold calculated man. Stephen Madsen is bone chillingly good as Richard Loeb….psychopathic, restless, bored, without true warmth or feeling, he is at times mesmerising to watch. The problem, for me, is not with the production, which clearly fills all its parameters, but with the content itself.

It’s hard to imagine this show could have any life outside of festivals or gay theatre. Even then one wonders why anyone would want to see the story of two totally reprehensible human beings who murdered a young boy just for the thrill. Stephen Dolginoff’s mostly sung through score is not bad, but it isn’t memorable, and lyrics range from the witty and unexpected to the boringly banal. There’s nothing to excite or enlighten the audience. The twist that Nathan Leopold manipulated the capture so that he and Loeb could be together forever, is the only new idea (at least I hadn’t heard it before) – and that only makes the character of Nathan even more depraved and unforgivable. Midsumma is an exciting Festival….but there are so many uplifting stories which qualify for production, why waste time and money on two despicable misfits in a show which offers not a glimmer of insight or understanding, no matter how well produced it is?

Coral Drouyn