A scream echoes through the night. A house buzzing with noise falls silent with a gasp and a cry of horror — there has been a murder! A body lies on the ground, surrounded by six weapons marked by six sets of fingerprints. Who is the murderer? Someone knows. Most do not.
This term’s play, Clue: On Stage, adapted by David Abbinanti, invites the audience to solve a murder mystery unfolding onstage.
Clue, based on the iconic board game, is a goofy comedy mixed with a puzzling mystery case. The play revolves around six eccentric characters, each of which have elusive secrets and dark pasts that mark them as suspects for the murder of businessman Mr. Boddy. The cast ranges from femme fatale Miss Scarlet to egotistic Mr. Plum to religious Mrs. Peacock.
Alongside Clue, students will also deliver another performance: Putnam County Spelling Bee. “This fall has the spelling bee as the musical, which will kind of replicate The Wizard of Oz(last year’s play) as this term’s more cheery performance,” said Yasemin Cobanoglu ’21, who plays the young brothel owner Miss Scarlet. “Clue is the play, and while it’s very much a comedy, it has a murder involved, so it definitely has a more mature theme and more mature language.”
Cobanoglu described her character as a sly seductress that “uses her femme fatale character to her advantage to manipulate others.”
The show is heavily defined by the unique characteristics of the six murder suspects. “Each of the six main characters have their signature thing: mine as Miss. Scarlet is smoking a cigarette, Professor Plum’s is checking himself out, Colonel Mustard’s is being a clumsy old military dude,” Cobanoglu said. “Everyone has traits that define them, and we repeat them a lot, so the audience should definitely look out for that.”
Kai Joseph ’21, who will be playing Colonel Mustard, agreed that each character contributes to the show’s overall atmosphere. “Every character is comedic. Everyone has fluid, exaggerated movements and exaggerated voice lines,” Joseph said. “Also, the transition segments in between the scenes packed with dialogues contain a lot of comedy that is only portrayed with actions. I’m pretty excited to see how they pan out.”
In particular, Joseph noted that his character, Colonel Mustard, is the comedic relief of the show. “He is a dimwit. As a colonel, he’s a proud man and proud of his military status. I’d say he kind of took on the role of a leader figure, even though he’s arguably the worst character to be the leader.” To Joseph, the irony of the least competent character taking leadership adds to his comedic effect.
As Joseph said, at first glance, Clue seems like a simple comedy with a suspenseful twist. But the actions of the six suspects follow a common theme that shows the audience the dangers of only acting in self-interest.
“Clue pretty easily explains the principle of selfishness,” Joseph says. “Each character acts only selfishly, and it’s pretty evident that their selfishness is a major contributor to why the murder happened.”
Performances for Clue: On Stage will take place on the Paul Mellon Arts Center Main Stage on November 14 to 16.
