Welcome to Boddy Manor, where secret rooms reveal themselves onstage alongside the various murder mysteries of Sandy Rustin’s Clue (a play based on the film of the same name). Produced at SBCC and directed by Amy Love, Clue gives characters ample opportunities to accuse each other of murder! In the study! With the lead pipe!
The cast is packed with comedically talented local actors, including Leslie Ann Story as the puffed-up Mrs. Peacock; Leesa Beck as the dramatically enigmatic black widow, Mrs. White; Nicholis Sheley as the public-sector pencil pusher. Tiffany Story, oft applauded for her brand of “snappy broad,” plays Miss Scarlet; Tyler Gilbert plays jolly, daft Colonel Mustard; and Will Muse plays walking red flag, Professor Plum. Kamile Zaunius rounds out the cast as the scene-stealing French maid, Yvette; and Raymond Wallenthin as the quirky, pot-stirring butler, Wadsworth (or is he?).
Clue offers silliness, noir, and slapstick schtick, but the limitations of theater slow the pace of this farce from thoroughbred racing to jogging. Clue (the board game) centers on pieces moving through the mansion’s rooms, as represented on the game board. Building a film around moving from room to room isn’t an issue, but it’s a challenging idea to represent onstage. SBCC’s production handles the “problem” of transferring between areas/sets with lyrical movement and Scooby-Doo-style group-creeping throughout an impressively engineered set with “hidden” rooms that move in and out of view as necessary. It’s well managed, but all the “traveling” and “set transformation” adds up, creating dead air throughout the piece. Clue certainly features fun moments, but campiness could safely be dialed up.
Clue runs at the Garvin Theatre through October 24th.
