A Show to Die for
written by Fiona J. Robertson and Paul Phillips
directed by Bernard Callaghan and Vernon Skitt
produced by John Carlson
featuring Ron Logan, Argelis Wesley, Jessica Kinslow, Dennis Otway, Suzy Turnbull, Grant Martindale, Brittney Lani, Rakhi Paw and Cecilia Camargo
The Theatre Guild of Ancon’s recent Halloween weekend special, “A Show to Die for,” featured dripping bloody posters and playbills. Alas, no machete men in hockey goalie masks. No zombies or cannibals either.
This was your garden variety crime, if there can be such a thing, set in the quaint English village of Upson Downs. There, the local community theater was presenting a cabaret night, during the course of which it was discovered that the absent cast member was unavailable because he had been murdered --- by another member of the cast, no less.
Thus came the audience participation, which was done in an awkward team competition in which groups of four were to identify the culprit and his or her motives. (I ended up with a team, half of whom I hadn’t previously met, and although I figured out who did it, I put my finger on a different motive than the “correct” one. But in any case, I was outvoted as to the identity of the murderer.)
We actually had some British and Commonwealth accents among the players, because in fact the Brits are well represented among those who have come forward to keep Panama’s English-language theater going. And anyway, it shouldn’t be odd enough to suspend disbelief when one hears an American accent in Upson Downs, because the UK does, after all, have its Yanks and its American-educated Britons.
The night’s outstanding performance was done in an American accent by Jessica Kinslow, a Florida State music major who played the insufferable Alexandria Bantam. I figured --- wrongly --- that whoever did the awful deed must have done it inorder to frame Alexandria.
What a piece of work! In fact, what a set of pieces of work!
But then, aren’t theater people SUPPOSED to have messy, complicated, promiscuous lives? (Or do I just think that because I used to be married to one?)
This was a fun play, before a packed house, with a playbill that had advertising indicative of the corporate sponsorship that gives an artistic enterprise more space to create. As in, after difficult times last year, the Theatre Guild of Ancon is back at full speed. By all the standards that I know, on both the creative and financial bottom lines, “A Show to Die for” was a great success for this venerable English-language institution.
But wait! What about that OTHER English tradition, wherein they give titles of nobility to atrocious criminals? Alas, it seems that a mere homicide among theater people isn’t enough to get someone called “The Ripper” these days.
Blame it on the journalists. It’s Fleet Street’s fault.
Also in this section:
Halloween whodunit at the Theatre Guild
Cool Internet sites
History books
