In the 1946 film "The Stranger," Orson Welles played a New England school teacher Charles Rankin, a man with an evil secret in his past. DMTheatrics and Horse Trader Theater Group have brought a stage adaptation of the movie to the Red Room Off-Off-Broadway, with the run finishing up Dec. 22. Performances began Dec. 6.

The Stranger will include scenes cut from the movie and the unique casting of a woman as Wilson, the spy hunter (played on film by Edward G. Robinson) who tears apart Rankin's community in search of the man's past. "The Stranger" was written by Anthony Veillor and John Huston, adapted by Welles and turned into a screenplay by Victor Trivas and Decla Dunning. DMT's Frank Cwiklik, who also directs and produces The Stranger, wrote some additional material.

Peter B. Brown stars as Rankin with Sarah Jane Bunker as the woman who loves him and Michele Scholossberg as Wilson. Also in the cast are Dan Maccarone, Tom Reid, Ian W. Hill, Josh Mertz, Gerald Marsini and Moira Stone.

Tickets are $15. The Red Room is located at 85 East 4th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. For reservations, call (212) 539-7686. Horse Trader Theatre is on the web at http://www.httheater.org/pressDMT.html.

— By Christine Ehren