Solve the mystery when Saint Viator High School stages 'Clue'
You know all the characters: Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet and Wadsworth, the butler. These iconic characters from the classic board game come to life in Saint Viator High School's fall production of "Clue."
Shows take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 26, 27 and 28, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, in the school's Jeuck Auditorium, 1213 E. Oakton St., Arlington Heights. Purchase tickets, $15, at saintviator.hometownticketing.com/embed/all.
The play is set in a New England mansion in 1954, where six guests are invited to a dinner party and given aliases. On this dark, stormy night the drama unfolds.
"It's over the top and outrageous, just like the 1985 film that it is based on," said director Megan Gray. "This style of melodramatic comedy is a genre all its own that I feel our kids have not had the opportunity to explore before."
Students in the show are having fun with their characters and developing the timing needed to pull off its slapstick comedy and murder mystery all in one.
Joe Kaiser of Kildeer and Paul Schultz of Mount Prospect both play the role of Wadsworth, the butler, in different casts. Both are working on their British accents for the seemingly stuffy butler and his character shift.
"At the beginning of the show he's very proper and above everyone," Kaiser said, "but as the play unravels, he starts to get more and more manic."
Gray held a screening of the 1985 film version of "Clue" so that students could choose the character they wanted to audition for, and their various traits stood out.
Finnian Haggerty of Arlington Heights shares the role of Colonel Mustard with Owen Kelly of Hoffman Estates. Each has worked to bring out the bluster in the familiar suspect.
"I do sort of a Southern preacher kind of accent, making him very over the top," Haggerty said. "I'm having fun with it."
Kaitlin Power of Lake Barrington and Nixon Kollias of Streamwood share the role of Miss Scarlet.
"She's the diva of the show," Power said. "She's a smartie and cheeky all at the same time."
Kollias added, "Whenever I played the board game, I always picked Miss Scarlet. I love wearing her red dress. It helps me get into her character."
Speaking of costumes, senior Bridget Martin of Lombard is the head costumer for the show, and she did her research.
"I looked in Vogue's digital archives for classic, mid-1950s attire," Martin said. "It's a dinner party, so it had to be fancy and elegant."
Anna Stuber of Arlington Heights, like many of the other cast members, helped build the set. They have been working under the direction of John Tilford, whose more than 25 years of experience includes working at Harpo Studios and the Lookingglass Theater in Chicago.
"It's been a lot of painting," Stuber said, pointing to scenery that looks much like the different rooms in the board game.
The focal point is a rotating set that revolves into different rooms, from the conservatory to the study, to the lounge or the kitchen. The doors move around the stage and the props all add up to an intricate set that immerses the audience into this classic whodunit.