Theater Review—

‘Whodunnit’ Offers A Lot Of Tricks For A Theatrical Treat At The Little Theatre

By Julie Stern

In a tongue in cheek sense, Anthony Shaffer might be called Sir Peter Shaffer’s evil twin.  While Peter is famous for such serious and complex works as The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus  and Amadeus, twin brother Anthony made his name as the screenwriter of Alfred Hitchcock’s murderous romp Frenzy, Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun, a collaborator on Murder on the Orient Express, and of course, both the play and the film, Sleuth.

In keeping with the  Halloween season of scariness and disguise, The Town Players are paying homage to the latter Shaffer, with a production of his last work, Whodunnit. Steeped as he was in the works of Agatha Christie, Anthony has an off-stage voice open the play with the announcement that this is to be a classic British country house mystery, in which the murderer has to be one of the characters, and it is up to the audience to spot the clues and identify him or her, before the detective confronts the guilty party.

Immediately thereafter, an assortment of exaggerated character types appear in the library of Silas Bazeby’s country manor:  a dithering butler, an oily foreigner from somewhere in eastern Europe, Bazeby himself, a nervously twitching lawyer with an eye patch, a pompously huffing rear-admiral, a blasé lady of the aristocracy,  a dim-witted young woman and her sleazy fiancé, and a famous  archeologist who is so shortsighted that she is continually stumbling over the furniture.

As Christie devotees know, her novels are divided into those in which everyone has a motive for murder, and those in which no one could possibly be guilty. Whodunnit, which continues in Newtown until October 24, is one of the former group.

Andreas Capodistriou, who has an uncanny memory of other people’s transgressions, has been blackmailing every other person on the stage. You can be pretty sure which member of the cast is going to be beheaded by a decorative ceremonial sword before the second act begins.

But this is Anthony Shaffer, however. Just when you are stifling a yawn and thinking, oh, this is just so trite and dated and stereotypical, he turns things upside down with an unexpected twist of plot, whereby we learn that of course these characters are unreal: they are actors! Their ridiculous hairdos are wigs, the whiskers are fake…  Because?  Well, that would be giving away the story, and that’s what you’ll be going to see.

The audience has a lot of fun, and I think the actors have even more. There are some Town Players veterans among them —  Daniel J. Mulvihill, Jr as Perkins, the butler, and Ron Malyszka as Bazeby himself, plus Steve Hoose as the literate detective who knows enough about English country house puzzlers to solve this one, and popular local dentist Kevin Braun, as his doughty sergeant.

There were also a collection of newcomers to the Little Theater, of whom my clear favorite was Susan Judge, who is an absolute hoot as the supercilious Lady Tremurrain. Also joining the company is Eric Greenfeld as the blustering Admiral Knatchbull-Folliat,  Nick Kaye looking like a villain out of the Little Orphan Annie comic strip, as Mr Capodistriou, Kristin Hoose as the air-headed Lavinia Hargreaves, Jeffry Bukowski as her feckless partner, Roger Dashwell, and Traci Sandler, as the blind archaeologist in a pith helmet.

There are lots of tricks in this Halloween treat, directed by Gene Golaszewski, so if you like that kind of thing, and you want to try and figure out “whodunit?” it’s yours to enjoy for a few more weekends.

(Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings at 8, and Sunday afternoons at 2. For full ticket details see the Enjoy calendar page. Contact The Town Players at 203-270-9144 or visit Danbury.org/TownPlayers to order.

Parents should be cautioned: While the production of Whodunnit is a treat for most, there is some adult content not suitable for children.)