[NEohioPAL] Review of Cleveland Play House's "The Game's Afoot"

[Bob Abelman]

CPH's 'The Game's Afoot' finds the right formula for success 

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 12/9/11

 

Legend has it that actor Edmund Gwenn-who starred as Santa in the classic 1947 holiday film Miracle on 34th Street-was asked on his deathbed if his pending demise was difficult to comprehend.  The actor lifted his head and said "No.  Dying is easy.  Comedy is hard."

 

In The Game's Afoot, a World Premiere production by Cleveland Play House, both dying and comedy come rather easily thanks to playwright Ken Ludwig. 

 

A murder mystery comedy, The Game's Afoot was originally written as a straight "who dunnit" detective drama grounded in the tradition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories from the late-1800s.  Called Postmortem, the play featured William Gillette, an actor and contemporary of Conan Doyle's, who had made a career out of playing Holmes on stage.  After an attempt is made on his life, Gillette recuperates in his Connecticut home and welcomes guests for the Christmas Eve weekend.  

 

Gillette's guests include four actors from his current production and the city's leading theater critic, who are all suspected of attempted murder.  They each have sound alibis, but earn their livings creating illusion to mask or, in the case of the mean-spirited critic, manufacture, reality.  In the course of the evening, a murder takes place and Gillette must use his Sherlock Holmes stage smarts to catch the culprit.   

 

Ludwig, who is best known for his outrageous farces, including Lend me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo, clearly could not fight the temptation to infuse this formulaic detective drama with a sense of humor.  Director Aaron Posner successfully merges the seemingly incongruous ingredients of murder, mystery and comedy in this wonderful production of The Game's Afoot.       

 

The playwright uses the outlandish personalities of Gillette's actor friends, played to the hilt and with great charm by Eric Hissom, Mattie Hawkinson, Lise Bruneau and Rob McClure, to generate some truly funny business for a murder mystery.  In fact, their characters are so likable and outrageous that it is hard to fathom that one of them could be a murderer.  Erika Rolfsrud has created such an unlikable theater critic character that it is hard to fathom that she may not be.   

 

Donald Sage MacKay is brilliant as Gillette, smoothly transitioning from debonair thespian to faux famed detective.  And, while Patricia Kilgarrif is delightful as Gillette's doddering Mother, Sarah Day is a bit off-putting as the overly dithering Inspector Harriet Goring.  

 

Ludwig places all of these people within the confines of a marvelous replica of a medieval castle with oak beams and banisters, massive doors, huge glass windows overlooking a raging snowstorm, and walls adorned with tapestries and weaponry.  Of course, it also comes complete with trap doors, hidden passageways and absolute isolation, which are perfect vehicles for murder most foul as well as mayhem most hilarious.

 

It is rare when the curtain opens and the scenic design gets a standing ovation.  On opening night, Daniel Conway's set, which fills the stage from wing to wing and from floor to fly-space, did.  

 

The Game's Afoot is no pastiche or spoof, which tend to make fun of the subject it pretends to adore. This play pays genuine homage to the murder mystery genre in the best way this playwright knows how: by making it funny.  

 

It's Holmes for the holidays. The Game's Afoot continues through December 24 in Cleveland Play House's Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare.  For tickets, which range from $49 to $69, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com.   
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