Andrews – There were games afoot at the Valleytown Cultural Arts Center last weekend, when the Act 2 players performed Bill Hand’s whack a doodle play Dinner on the Menu.
Artemis Ward opened the show drinking a glass of wine when the lights went out. By the time the lighting was restored, Ward was doubly dead – once from the poison digitoxicon, and once again from a knife wound in his back. The rest of the production saw the players attempt to solve the murder, sometimes even involving the audience.
Ward’s aristocratic children were considered prime suspects because the family fortune gave them 5.2 million reasons to murder their father. Reginald Ward, Artimus’ son (played expertly by Ashley Eller), commanded the stage with hysterical quips that masked a tightly controlled mania. His sister, Alexis Ward-Regent-Middlefield-Abernathy-Gillicuddy-Boskowicz, played by veteran actress Leah Wood, seemed a more likely murderer when she explained to the audience that all of her husbands died because, “I’m no good at cooking.”
Lillie Morris played the mild-mannered family attorney, Eileen Morrow. Her motives were dodgy at best when it was revealed she had already embezzled money from her lover, Artimus Ward. This left only the lively Jeannie Dell (Melissa Haskill), the chef of the restaurant that served as the setting for the entire play, and her love interest, the eager Bernie Jones (Cory Cheek, also the capable director), who was written off by the Ward siblings as a ridiculous cousin.
Hand wrote in two characters who served as investigators in the dizzying production. Philip Dekle gave a meritorious performance as Major, Major, Major, showing particular skill in swagger and confidence. But Blake Williams as Dr. Tony Bullfinger, the self-appointed coroner, exhibited exciting talent.
Williams spoke with comfortable authority, never overplaying his wildly dramatic role. In a production full of witty banter, he showed skilled comedic timing, while his energy lifted the occasional lag in dialogue. In their shared scenes, Williams and the equally talented Eller created theatre magic.
Volunteers served the audience a tasty three-course dinner, catered by Mariolino’s in Andrews, during
the production. The comedy entertained the audience with some madcap action, which included carrying the dead body through the audience before arriving backstage.
The production brought welcome entertainment to a wearied community hungry for in-person social interaction. Retired school teachers and sisters Connie Curtis and Sherri Golden drove in from Hayesville to enjoy it.
“We’ve been to productions here before,” Curtis said, “We’ve even brought our students.”
Raysa Gomez, also from Hayesville, brought her husband and two daughters to see the show.
“We wanted to explore and do something different,” she said.
Her 17-year-old daughter, Katrina, felt confident before the show opened that she could identify the murderer.
“I think I’ll guess it,” she laughed, adding, “I have high hopes.”
In the end, it was Alexis who killed her father and then, strangely, in an unexpected twist, murdered her brother and the family attorney with her poison of choice, digitoxicon.
When introducing the show, Valleytown Cultural Arts & Historic Society board member Lori Coffey told the audience, “We have box fans set up to keep the temperature down; I hope you don’t sweat too much!” Proceeds from the production will directly benefit the historical building, including the installment of air-
conditioning.