I don’t have to worry about spoiler alerts here…the story is very well known. If you read Dan Brown’s original book and/or saw the original film adaptation, you need to see the Lake Country Players production of The Da Vinci Code. If you are not aware of the story but love good stories told well, you need to see this production of The Da Vinci Code.
In the past, I have described the Lake Country Playhouse as a little jewel box theater. And it is. It is intimate and the audience is never more than a few feet from the action. And the sets are always creative units that propel the story and allow the actors comfortable environments to work in. But this time, director James Baker has the unenviable task of depicting events across Europe in a number of ‘exotic’ locations. So for The Da Vinci Code, he and his design staff have elected to work from a black box theater. And they nailed it! Yes, they are still working with minimal furnishings, which get moved about as required, but they have selected a number of grand slides to project against the back wall that depict our various locations and easily put the audience into the sense and mood of the scene.
The play was adapted from Brown’s novel by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel and treks across Europe from any number of rooms in the Louvre to Versailles to England to any number of churches and abbeys. Baker with Breanne Brennan (Lighting and Sound and Projections), Jennifer Craven (Stage Manager), and Nancy Hurd (Props and Costumes), make the transitions clear, clean, and with your suspension of disbelief running hot, believable.
I am not sure exactly where to start, so let’s start at the beginning. Harvard Symbology nerd, Robert Langdon, is in Paris to present a lecture. He is invited to meet at the Louvre with a curator who is a similar nerd but the meeting gets canceled. Langdon goes anyway only to find that the curator, a certain Jacques Sauniere, has been killed in the galleries and of course the Paris police, now have a special interest in Langdon. Sauniere has left behind a number of cryptic clues that the police hope Langdon can help with but his name is also included with the messages left by the deceased. The police cryptographer arrives to help with decoding the messages and realizes that although Langdon is considered a suspect, he is also her best possible ally in solving the case. It just so happens that the cryptographer is Sophie Neveu, the granddaughter of Mr. Sauniere, so this is more than a who done it, but a personal matter now. So she helps Langdon slip out of the Louvre and they are off on a series of adventures across Europe to solve the case and solve an ages old mystery.
Carl J. Petersen makes his first major appearance as the late Jacques Sauniere, tied to a Louvre gallery wall in an imitation of Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man. Hardly an auspicious first act entrance but Petersen returns throughout as the loving and thoughtful spirit of Sauniere, carefully filling in the back story and providing some insight into the goings on even though Sophie and Robert aren’t aware of his presence. Our Robert Langdon is played by Chris Gonyo, who certainly knows how and when to play against the Indiana Jones type that his character may suggest. Gonyo at times is timid, squeamish, hesitant, and ready to bail, but can’t quite let go of the mystery at hand. He finally becomes a Hitchcock type hero, the common man who seizes the moment and excels in the challenge.
Langdon’s co-conspirator is Sophie Neveu, and somehow Amanda Springob portrays Neveu with eternal energy and curiosity. An energy and curiosity that is most certainly the main inspiration for Langdon to continue. Springob’s portrayal of Neveu is the life force in this Da Vinci Code. And the initial nemesis? That wold be Jack Anderson’s Silas. Silas is a member of Opus Dei, a cult or a group of true believers depending on your vantage point. But Anderson’s Silas is smarmy, and I don’t mean in an unctuous oily way, but in a very tangible creepy eerie sense. One that just does not go away. No human should act like this. No human should move like this. No human should be so focused as to ignore the facts of everyone around him. But Anderson is that focused and that lacking in empathy that he is the perfect villain here.
Langdon has a colleague who lives near Versailles. An eccentric British expert on the Holy Grail and all roads seem to be pointing to the Grail by now. Paul Weir is Sir Leigh Teabing and is clearly that eccentric British academic that we would expect. He warmly welcomes Langdon and Neveu but rambles on and on about his interests while they are trying to pick his brain on their own intense mystery. Of course Weir’s Teabing thinks he’s the smartest person in the room. Weir rambles from intense to tangential and back, but suddenly springs into action and off to England they go in his private plane. Now Teabing has a maidservant, Remy. Remy is played by Mike Crowley. And in his all black costume, permanent scowl, and guttural replies, Crowley drips sinister every time he steps on stage. Your spidey senses will be tingling immediately and the reason for your discomfort will soon be revealed.
Two other notables are our determined Paris police detectives, Bezu Fache and Collet. Jeffrey Seelig is a sly Fache, seemingly a bit confused by the events in the Louvre and later, he actually is aware of what is going on and trying to track the players as he hopes they solve the crime. And Sydney Faris as Collet, is a dedicated officer but maybe not as astute as Fache. Although that too may be a ruse.
The Lake Country Players present The Da Vinci Code from now through March 29, 2026 at their Lake Country Playhouse in downtown Hartland. Additional information and tickets can be found HERE
The play runs 130 minutes plus a 15 intermission.
This show has a number of instances of simulated gunfire resulting in death, a number of fight scenes, and a scene of self-harm.
