Lakeside Little Theatre (LLT) certainly chose an excellent show to open its 51st season. “Murder by Misadventure,” directed by Debra Bowers, is a mystery full of suspense and clever twists and turns, which grabs and then grips the audience’s attention throughout.
Published in 1992, the play was written by Edward Taylor, well known as the writer of Britain’s long-running radio comedy series, “The Men from the Ministry” and other sitcoms, plus editions of comedy panel game “Just a Minute.” Originally set on England’s Sussex coast, LLT’s version takes place in a luxury 10th floor condominium overlooking Long Island Sound.
The curtain opens on an impressively realistic set, designed by Alan and Debra Bowers, complete with large sliding glass doors and balcony beyond, where the award-winning scriptwriting team, Harold Kent (Ed Tasca) and Paul Riggs (Ken Yakiwchuk), are working.
The pair has very different personalities. While Kent has handled his money prudently and now lives in this exclusive apartment by the ocean, Riggs has spent his on gambling, women and alcohol, as fast as he earned it.
When Riggs discovers that Kent wants to dissolve their partnership, things turn nasty. He reveals that he knows a dreadful secret from Kent’s past and threatens blackmail.
Kent decides he has to kill Riggs, so he and his wife Emma (Kathleen Morris) set about planning how they will do it, by borrowing heavily from the plot of one of Kent & Riggs’ earlier mysteries. Job done, the Kents depart to California for six weeks.
After intermission, upon their return Inspector Egan (Michael Warren) arrives at their door unannounced, and the tension and plot-twists gather pace with red-herrings, false impressions and several surprises.
Although the first act seems over long, it does take some time to set up the complex plot. With a cast of only four, the number of lines to be learned must have been daunting and was almost certainly responsible for the odd flub, quickly remedied, on the first couple of nights of the run.
The action is played dead straight and with the occasional laugh engendered by the situation occurring on stage or the odd humorous line, like Riggs’ refusal to go to New York to collect an award, “Tell them to shove it up their visual arts!” Or Kent’s claim that, “I couldn’t commit suicide to save my life!”
The four actors are well cast and do a great job. Kent is finely drawn, and Tasca’s stage presence and repertoire of emotions – fear of his dreadful secret being exposed, total panic, and wily solution – are certainly up to his usual standard. His reactions to unfolding events during Act II are extremely convincing.
Yakiwchuk plays Riggs to perfection, drunk, sober, charming, rude, angry, coldly calm and smoothly threatening by turn. He just gets better and better and this production enabled him to showcase his talent.
Displaying just the right amount of temerity and fear as the story unfolds, Morris’s glamorous characterization of Kent’s wife Emma is, as ever, well constructed and entirely plausible throughout.
Warren’s interpretation of the bumbling but astute Detective Egan is spot on. He portrayed the stereotypical laughably foolish “cop,” which contrasts well with several sudden and highly perspicacious observations that indicate otherwise and give everyone pause.
There is an audible gasp as the final twist provides the surprising solution to the mystery, which I, like many others, had not anticipated.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable, well directed, well performed and well dressed production which keeps everyone guessing right up to the end. Highly recommended.
The show continues its run this Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. The final show is Sunday, October 11, 3 p.m. LLT box office opens one hour before curtain.
Stage Manager: Beth Leitch. Producer: Sandy McKoy. Set Construction: Richard Bansbach, Alan Bowers, David Bryen, Hugh Morton, Norm Whelpdale. Set Painting: Linda Ball, Alan Bowers, Elizabeth Reinheimer. Props: Collette Clavadetcher, Carolyn Cothran, Gail Footit, Julie Mignard. Lighting Design: Alan Bowers, Neal Checkoway, Shellie Checkoway. Lighting Operation: Kevin Leitch. Sound: Hallie Shepherd. Wardrobe: Lois Cugini. Dresser: Jody Noble. Makeup: Maryanne Gibbard, Catherine Huff, Julie Mignard. Special Makeup: Donald Stordahl.