Legacy Theatre in Branford made a splendid production of this slapstick comedy (still playing thru October 1) and although I sometimes felt unmoved by the zany script I was surrounded by persons who screamed with laughter all the way through the performance. My own appreciation came afterwards as I recalled this scene or that and realized how deeply it had scarred my surface.
Legacy Theatre creates lovely playbills, and in this case added a separate program as well, introducing the “Cornley Drama Society” in a production called ‘The Murder at Haversham Manor.’
All of the actors and staff in the Cornley D S production were identified in the Legacy playbill, so that if you put several steps together you might learn that Dan Hyde (last seen as the Prince in ‘Beauty and the Beast)’ is working as Trevor, the Lighting and Sound Manager, and Isaac Kueber is playing Max Maxwell who is an outrageous Cecil in Murder… The most fun of these is Nick Fetherston, who becomes Jonathan Harris, a very elegant Charles Haversham, decidedly at the center of the play for it is he who is found dead in Haversham Manor at the very beginning, and therefore quite unable to marry his fiancé, Florence, played by Sandra, who is in reality a quite athletic Mary Mannix. His death doesn’t matter too much for Florence and Cecil also seem to have a regular romantic involvement. But before we get to any of that there’s a wonderful setting the stage bit of trying to keep the mantel over the fireplace from falling off the wall. For a few minutes that appears to be solved before it falls again. Speaking of the set, which is literally ‘smashing’ in several scenes, I think it was designed by Jamie Burnett and installed by Master Carpenter Rich Burkam. Pieces of the wall fly open at different times. Theres an elevator to a landing that at first is held up by a solid upright beam. When the elevator won’t work, hidden stairs lead to the landing, but when the upright beam is pulled out and carried away the landing sags scarily and finally collapses with an actor flattened beneath it. There’s also a revolving bookcase and a grandfather’s clock that is more like an opening/closing mummy case.
The settee, on which Charles Haversham’s dead body is found, has a cover that allows the body to be rolled onto the floor. But when some caretakers try to remove it they manage to carry off only an empty sling, so Haversham has to slide like a dead alligator towards and out the door. The same door that later will NOT open, and then suddenly does, slamming Florence like a pancake against the window, and in turn prompting Trevor to leave his post at the sound booth and come running up, over, and down to the stage with a first-aid kit. (No matter: Florence is, for the duration, upside down and more or less a broken doll). So, you can understand that the set is decidedly a member of the Cornley ensemble in this wacky play.
It’s a bit of a spoiler to mention that the elegant Charles Haversham turns up elegantly alive in the last scene, and that Florence also returns, in and out of the revolving bookcase AND the clock case. The flamboyant Cecil continues to pose for the audience right unto the final curtain, and most of the set collapses cooperatively.
So, a little awkwardly, I’m giving “The PLAY the goes WRONG” a Ridgelea Reward for best ensemble production, and I encourage you to ring up the box office at Legacy Theatre (203-315-1901) and try to get tickets to see the show before it closes on October 1.
Tom Nissley, for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre September 19, 2023
