Those character actors take on three-dimensional versions of the cards in the game. And there actually are cards used. Each character’s card hangs above each actor at the beginning and end of the acts, and smaller versions of those cards are chosen by three volunteers at the start of “the game.” Mr. Boddy (the corpse) allows each volunteer to take a card for the murderer, the weapon, or the room, being first instructed not to look at the card they’ve chosen (an instruction amusingly ignored by a couple of the sneaky, curious volunteers). And then, let the game and the murder commence. But pay attention, as you will have the chance to solve the crime as the clues are divulged.

Darrian Rivera is our soon-to-be dead narrator. He takes his inevitable death in stride, his easygoing arrogance and coldness making him an apropos narrator for the game as well as an apropos murder victim as he shrewdly infuriates all his guests, making everyone a potential killer.

Even Mrs. White? The loyal maid? Emily Shuff leaves no doubt of her murderous capabilities, her charming cockney accent giving way to a not-so-subtle cockney temper as the hilarious actress goes postal in her kitchen in Life Is A Bowl of Pits. But what about the sleazy Mr. Green? Sean Zortman is a riot with his voice and body language as a cliché-challenged embezzler who talks like a classic B-movie gangster. Unless it was a crime of passion! Enter the lovely, scorned, and amusing Miss Scarlet (Kelsey L. Smith) who has revenge on her mind, with Scarlet and Green teaming up to consider a smorgasbord of possible weaponry in Everyday Devices. Mrs. Peacock has an axe to grind as well, with Abby Snook lending her beautiful voice to Once a Widow. Or was it, after all, Colonel Mustard? John Feldmann is exactly as you’d imagined the old codger, a war hero in his own mind whose reminisces about his imagined glory days may just give him the courage to do something about the man with whom he has an old score to settle.

But how will the murder be solved? Enter a new character to Clue, the Detective! Alesia Knott is the hardnosed detective who is not intimidated by the other characters making fun of her for not being in the instruction book and deriding her as a lost piece from another game. But she is a little sensitive about people looking at her (she’s got a few psychological issues to work through). Alesia has her finger on the pulse of this character, and her hilarious song-and-dance with Professor Plum (Michael Loughran) may be the best scene of the show as Plum tries to seduce her, pretty successfully, giving us a glimpse of the uptight detective’s wilder side simmering just beneath the surface.

Performed November 30, 2007.

Rob Hopper
Executive Director
National Youth Theatre

Mr. Boddy: