Because guns have become an everyday part of the popular media, the revival of knives and brass knuckles in Penobscot Theatre’s production of “Wait Until Dark,” which opened Friday at the Opera House, makes for a curious suspension of disbelief.

The thriller appeared on Broadway in 1966 with Lee Remick and Robert Duvall, and a successful film version was released in 1967 starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. The premise of the play — including the weaponry, a dial phone and an elaborate ruse — is short on thrill in these times of TV violence when a gun could reduce the show to about three minutes.

But you have to take into account that Frederick Knott’s work is an old-fashioned murder mystery (accent on old-fashioned). Just as with “Dial M for Murder” (Knott’s other hit), “Wait Until Dark” has a plot that asks us to be big-hearted about details. It goes like this: Suzy, who was blinded by a recent accident, is left alone for the day by her photographer husband. While he’s gone, she is terrorized by thugs in search of a heroin-filled doll that has wound up in her possession. They devise a scheme complete with pretend names and occupations as well as spylike signals with window blinds to trick Suzy into producing the doll. But Suzy begins to see the light, and comes up with a few counterstrategies of her own.

What that means for the audience is that sometimes the plot can be tedious and the setup can fall just this side of ridiculous. Why don’t these tough guys just off Suzy instead of playing cops-and-robbers dress up?

The answer is suspense, and director Mark Torres has enough love of the genre to go at it with a serious commitment to things that go bump in the night. For one thing, he eliminates all light in the theater during scene changes as well as the notorious final fight scene. Mostly, this creates an eerie feeling of disorientation and sympathy for Suzy. Spooky lighting by Lynne Chase and creepy music with incidental street sounds by Beth Wiemann don’t hurt either. Timothy Krause’s multilevel set raises the stakes, too.

Deborah Elz Hammond is plucky as Suzy, and her energy never wanes through this two-hour-plus performance which has her onstage for nearly the entire time. She starts big and loud and shrill, and ends bigger and louder and shriller. It’s tempting to wish she had a bit more sweetness and fragility in the beginning so the dynamic of her character could build as she mines an unusual strength. But there’s no way to leave the theater without admiring Hammond’s irrepressible and graceful performance. And she’s the only one in the cast whose every word is audible.

No one creates as much tension, however, as Ron Adams playing the sinister mastermind crook, Harry Roat. Adams is subtle, scary and chilling. He’s charmingly evil, and that’s just the worst — or the best, depending on how gullible you are.

The performances by Hammond and Adams are both slightly deflated by the supporting actors, whose clunkiness with the form gets in the way of creating completely believable characters. Nevertheless, Michael A. Mayhall Jr., as the tender-underneath-it-all criminal, has some genuinely terse moments, and Anna Wieck, as a petulant young neighbor turned co-hero by the end, does a playful and endearing job.

Like a good black-and-white photograph, this production of “Wait Until Dark” captures a time gone by with much integrity. Although there will sometimes be audience giggles when there are supposed to be shudders, this production is a fun and fast-paced evening of being in the deep dark when someone has a knife and the chase is on.

Penobscot Theatre will present Wait Until Dark at 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 4 at the Opera House on Main Street in Bangor. For tickets, call 942-3333.