Classic Mystery Game is, as often happens with SATE Ensemble Theatre, rather a romp. Written and directed by Katy Keating, it’s a take on the board game Clue. It’s an Agatha Christie-ish murder in an English country house bringing together a bunch of strangers – strange strangers, in this case – to address some rather awkward business they turn out to have in common.
A video opens the show, making full use of The Chapel’s Oxonian architecture as though we were entering the aforesaid almost manor-sized house. The butler Wadsworth, Michael Cassidy Flynn, begins to welcome the guests who arrive mostly one at a time so we can learn about them. But why is this disparate group being assembled? What do they have in common?
To be sure, it’s an amusing group. Carl Overly, Jr., is the redoubtable Colonel Mustard, Ellie Schwetye the stylish widow Mrs. White, and Rachel Tibbetts plays Mrs. Peacock, the mutton-dressed-as-lamb wife of a senator. Mr. Green is Will Bonfiglio, the research scientist Professor Plum, Paul Cereghino, and femme fatale-slash-madam is Maggie Conroy. Mr. Boddy, who arrives late, is Reginald Pierre.
It’s a brave move for SATE to stage the show in a setting with known problems with acoustics and then choose to have so much of the dialogue delivered rapid fire. Between Flynn’s English accent and the speed of his delivery, which eases only slightly as the show progresses, quite a lot of details seemed to fly by the ear without landing comfortably. Others were affected as well, especially at first, but because he carried the majority of the lines, it fell primarily on Flynn.
There’s some very funny stuff here, to be sure, and the cast carries it off very well, diving into the play without chewing the scenery. Schwetye’s Mrs. White never seems to be without her carefully posed arm and upturned chin; Conroy slinks expertly as Miss Scarlett, never missing an opportunity for a double entendre. Cereghino slithers quietly about so well we scarcely realize he’s avoiding attention, and Tibbets’ barely-up-from-dowdiness is remarkable. Overly, as Mustard, is a worldly, wise chap without the puff and bluster the character is often given, and as Boddy, Pierre offers us marvelous menace. Kristem Strom is the French maid, and Marcy Ann Wiegert and Bess Moynihan play several roles, the former with much changing of chapeaux.
The pacing is sometimes as slam-bang as the delivery of those lines, although far less disconcerting – watching the group move through the “house” is pretty amusing, and the adjustment of Bess Moynihan’s set at times becomes part of the fun. Liz Henning’s costumes delineate the characters very well, especially for Mrs. White.
The show runs about 90 minutes including the intermission – it’d be improved by adding another 10 or 15 minutes so we could understand the dialogue more completely.
Classic Mystery
through February 10
SATE Ensemble Theatre
The Chapel
6239 Alexander (off Skinker)