Temporary Help Proves to be More Temporary Than Expected; Show to Close December 8

The Revelation Theater Company’s Off-Broadway production of David Wiltse’s Temporary Help, starring Chad Allen, Margaret Colin, Robert Cuccioli, and William Prael, will end its limited engagement earlier than planned. Though the show was scheduled to run through January 12, its final performance will be on Sunday, December 8, 2002, beginning at 7:30pm.

Billed as a psycho-sexual thriller, Temporary Help was inspired by sensational 1990 news reports of a Midwestern couple who were found guilty of killing their hired hands in Missouri. The play shows what happens when Faye Streber (Margaret Colin), an insecure rancher’s wife, and her abusive husband, Karl (Robert Cuccioli), come up against Vincent Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Chad Allen), a sexy drifter with a shady past.

In his November 18 review of the production for TheaterMania, David Finkle wrote that, “Were Temporary Help a movie, which playwright David Wiltse probably hopes it will be eventually, it could be the kind of tingly genre exercise that attracts the same cult following as something like The Last Seduction or Red Rock West. Had it appeared 50 or 60 years ago, it would have had tremendous appeal in that it avails itself of the James M. Cain formula that was so much a part of the earlier film noir years. It’s a sordid tale, like The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity before it, in which a good-looking stranger arrives at a deceptively serene household where the wife harbors reasons for wanting someone to assist in disposing of her husband. But since Temporary Help has sneaked into an Off-Broadway berth and not onto local screens, it’s possible that the taut but offbeat piece will end up sneaking out of town just as quietly.”

The inaugural production of Revelation Theater, Temporary Help is being staged in the company’s temporary home at the Women’s Project Theatre (formerly Theatre Four), located at 424 West 55th Street. The show officially opened on November 17 and will have played a total of six previews and 23 regular performances at the time of its closing. There will be two performances today (Saturday, December 8) at 2pm and 8pm, and two tomorrow at 3pm and 7:30pm. All tickets are $39.50 and may be purchased by phoning Tele-charge at 212-239-6200 or in person at the Women’s Project Theatre box office.