Murder is in the eye of the beholder.

A sweltering New York summer. A man confined to his wheelchair spends hour after hour watching his neighbors. Is he imagining things, or has he witnessed a murder? A thrilling adaptation of the classic crime story—“Rear Window” by Cornell Woolrich—that inspired the Alfred Hitchcock film. Keith Reddin’s plays include Frame 312, Life and Limb and Rum and Coke.

The following are questions originally published in an interview with director Darko Tresnjak in AmericanTheatre.org.

Rear Window sounds like an amazing, and daunting, idea for the stage. How are you going to do it?

Keith Reddin wrote a taut, gritty adaptation, true to the spirit of the original Cornell Woolrich story. The play takes place inside of a sweltering, claustrophobic apartment, very much like the addled brain of the leading character. The stage space is a mental space. But what actually happens in the apartment is completely different from the film. There is no Grace Kelly. There is a young black man called Sam, and the adaptation has something to do with recent events, interestingly. The thriller aspect is similar, but the psychology of the main character, Jeffrey, is completely different. Keith knows a lot about Cornell Woolrich and his actual biography, and he draws on that knowledge in his adaptation.

Are you attracted to thrillers as a form?

The second big production I did when I was at Swarthmore College was The Visit, and at one point people screamed. I’m interested in fear onstage, as opposed to in the cinema. I’ve done several productions of Titus, and I hope to do more; I’m never done with that play.