Malaika Wanjiku, Joshua Crédle, Adam Brett, Sitare Sadeghi, Cody Jolly, Lucas Diego Marinetto, and Caroline Lynch in Clue: On Stage
Clue: On Stage, now playing at the Timber Lake Playhouse, is a farcical whodunit adapted from the 1985 movie Clue, which is, in turn, based on the popular board game. Six colorful characters arrive at Boddy Mansion for a mysterious dinner party: Miss Scarlet (Morgan Milone), Mrs. Peacock (Sitare Sadeghi), Mrs. White (Malaika Wanjiku), Colonel Mustard (Adam Brett), Professor Plum (Joshua Crédle), and Mr. Green (Lucas Diego Marinetto). The butler Wadsworth (Cody Jolly) greets them and oversees the proceedings. After dinner, their host turns up dead, and the frenzied quest to resolve all the mysteries begins. Ever-more bodies, ever-more finger pointing, ever-more madcap chasing around the mansion – until finally, comically, everything is revealed, and all loose ends are tied up. Or are they? Suffice it to say there's a rip-roaring conclusion. We attended the performance on Friday, August 2.
Mischa: This is very much an ensemble piece, with the focus divided up about equally between the various guests – as well as Wadsworth, and also the maid Yvette (Caroline Lynch Desmarais). The actors all did a fine job of bringing out specific personal traits and peculiarities, and the whole show really gelled around the cast as a whole.
Kitty: For sure. This show demands strong character choices from its actors, and this group delivered. I especially enjoyed Milone’s Miss Scarlet. She was – sorry in advance – dead-on as the femme fatale of the group. And at the other end of the [clears throat] spectrum, Sadeghi’s strident hysterics as Mrs. Peacock were also a standout for me.
M: Jolly ably embodied the take-charge butler, leading the merry chase, especially in the final chaotic scenes. His accent did seem to wobble sometimes between RP and Cockney, but at some point, it was possibly revealed that he wasn’t British to begin with, so … .
K: The plot twists really do pile up – to hilarious effect. There’s always something happening, and the cast never dropped the ball. They kept the momentum going. And since there was so much literal running back and forth, that fast pace was critical.
M: Running from room to room, but also sometimes dancing into the next room, with period-appropriate '50s music playing: How did you like that as a method of doing scene transitions?
K: Oh my word, I loved it! Listen, scene transitions are a necessary evil, and they can be so difficult to orchestrate. We’ve all been to a show that takes five minutes between every scene to rearrange the set while some recorded music plays, and the audience shifts awkwardly in their seats. Director Cameron King has my appreciation for making those transitions entertaining little nuggets on their own.
M: And as always, it helps immensely to have a turntable! But here, the turntable was absolutely essential to making all the rushing and capering through the mansion work seamlessly.
K: But enough about scene transitions, we have to talk about that incredible set!
M: Yes! Spencer Donovan’s set was truly amazing. I really liked the study, for example, tricked out with matching antique chairs and sofa, not to mention a spiral staircase that leads nowhere but was actually used very dramatically.
K: And the turntable also allowed for set adjustments to happen offstage, leading to some big reveals when a room came back into view. Seriously, I was in love with this set. It may have been the most memorable part of the show for me. Of course, any great Clue player knows that the mansion is a critical part of the action; so it makes sense that this set was almost a character in and of itself. And speaking of ambiance, how about those light and sound effects?
M: Yeah, this show had a lot of technical effects designed by Abi Farnsworth (lighting) and Rory Shea (sound). And they were almost always executed and timed very well.
K: Especially the doors locking and the rain sounds when the doors at the main entrance were opened or closed!
M: I really enjoyed the lights that illuminated each of the potential murder weapons in turn when they were unboxed. And of course all the storm effects! Sometimes the sound cues overpowered the actors’ voices, though, which was a bit of a problem.
K: That’s true. There were a couple times when I was straining to hear what the actors were saying over the sound cues, but it was always resolved quickly, and I think the actors did a solid job of raising their volume in those situations. Switching gears a little bit, I want to talk about the costumes, because while I’m a fan of the movie, my one big gripe with it has always been that they didn’t costume the actors in the established color scheme! I know it’s gimmicky; but the whole concept is gimmicky, so you might as well lean into it. I was so happy that Timber Lake’s costume designer Nile Michelle embraced the color theme.
M: The costumes were consistently good, and overall, the show’s attention to technical detail was excellent—including that particularly nice spurt of blood toward the end.
K: Yeah, I loved that!
M: Final kudos: In a show like this, there is no shortage of moments in which actors need to play corpses, but Gabriela Hernandez (the singing telegram) had to lie there dead for a really long time and did it very well. She also nicely pulled off the minor character of the cook.
K: So, in the end, what’s your verdict?
M: I think both cast and crew were guilty … of giving the audience a rollicking good time!
K: Absolutely. A highly enjoyable show. Case closed!
Clue: On Stage runs at the Timber Lake Playhouse (8215 Black Oak Road, Mt. Carroll IL) through August 11, and more information and tickets are available by calling(815)244-2035 and visiting TimberLakePlayhouse.org.
