I don’t often review theater preformed by young actors in school auditoriums. This one was greatly assisted behind the scenes by the able personnel of the Lake County Theatre Company (LCTC), so I felt confident that there would be high production values. It was presented in the MAC Theater, which is a great venue, although it is only available when basketball lets it loose. I’ve seen most of them before, so I know that the actors, although all high school students, have a great deal of experience on stage. So I felt confident that it would be worth seeing, and I was not disappointed.
The play is hilarious in a dark way. I’ve seen it as a movie and twice on stage, all some years ago, and fortunately I’d forgotten most of the plot. It is about a family of criminal maniacs, excepting only the male lead played by William McCauley as Mortimer Brewster. He is in love with Kyrstyn Gregore as Elaine. When he finds out that his two beloved and charming old aunts have a body stashed in the window seat, and 12 more buried in the basement, he begins to doubt that he should marry and perhaps perpetuate a genetic propensity to murder. This is augmented by the madness of his brother who believes that he is Teddy Roosevelt, and by his other brother who shows up after a long absence, with his face deformed by plastic surgery, and who has a long history of violent crime.
There is a competition between the murderous brother and the aunts to see who has the most murders in their resume. The sinister brother Jonathan is played by Hayley Martin. She does a good job of being a hideous, homicidal criminal here. She is convincingly dangerous.
That’s all of the plot I should give you. It is a comedy, it has genuine suspense and there are lots of laughs. The direction was overseen by LCTC’s Nani Phillips, and the comedic timing is great. The show flows just fine. Everybody knows their lines, the costumes are good and appropriate to the time, and the blocking is natural and easy. And as a final reason that you should see this play, unless you have seen Teddy running up the stairs shouting “Charge!” you have missed one of the funniest experiences of 2015.
There are two performances on Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. The evening show will feature a costume contest with prizes for the winners at intermission. Due to the Halloween carnival at the CLHS gym, parking will be limited for this show.
The final performance takes place Sunday at 2 p.m.
All performances take place at the MAC building on the campus of CLHS in Lakeport. Tickets are available online at www.lakecountytheatrecompany.org or at Piece’s Boutique in Lakeport or at the door. For more information, call (707) 533-3406.
