Review: CLUE at Penfold Theatre

There are mysteries that invite us to lean forward, study every clue, and carefully consider the evidence. And then there is CLUE, which invites us to do some of that while people race through doors, collide with one another, misunderstand nearly everything, and discover yet another body at a wonderfully inconvenient moment. Penfold Theatre’s production embraces the gleeful ridiculousness of the whole affair, delivering a fast, funny evening powered by an excellent ensemble and the kind of precise comic timing that makes chaos look effortless.

Adapted by Sandy Rustin from Jonathan Lynn’s screenplay, with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price, CLUE brings the familiar characters of the classic board game and 1985 film together at Boddy Manor for one increasingly disastrous evening. Wadsworth, the butler, welcomes an assortment of guests traveling under suspicious aliases: Miss Scarlett, Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, and Mr. Green. Everyone has a secret and something to lose. Before long, there are weapons scattered around the house, bodies appearing with alarming regularity, and an urgent need to discover who did what, where, and with which potentially deadly household object.

Director Steven Pounders understands that this kind of comedy depends upon precision. Farce may look chaotic, but successful farce is anything but. The scenes are crisp, the transitions are clean, the physical comedy is carefully shaped, and the jokes land because Pounders keeps the production moving without allowing it to become muddled. Most importantly, he has assembled a terrific ensemble whose members understand that the funniest person onstage is often the one reacting to someone else’s absurdity.

Bailey Ellis leads the company as Wadsworth with a fantastic performance. His extraordinarily expressive face sometimes seems capable of providing an entire additional script, registering panic, calculation, disbelief, confidence, and complete bewilderment in rapid succession. Ellis is equally adept with the verbal and physical demands of the role, moving comfortably through farce, slapstick, and the increasingly frantic mechanics of the mystery. He also does a splendid job of keeping both the other characters and the audience guessing. Wadsworth requires an actor who can appear to be managing the madness of the character demands while simultaneously contributing considerably to it, and Ellis handles that contradiction beautifully.

Charlesanne Rabensburg is hilarious as Miss Scarlett, bringing exactly the right combination of confidence, wit, and knowing awareness to the role. Her Scarlett seems perfectly capable of assessing everyone in the room while making certain they never quite assess her correctly. Rabensburg delivers the character’s humor with an appealing sharpness and is especially effective in her interactions with the rest of this well-matched company.

Trish Avery makes Mrs. Peacock one of the evening’s funniest characters. She commits completely to the character’s age, mannerisms, nervous energy, and glorious eccentricity. Nothing feels halfway done; Avery throws herself into Peacock’s peculiarities with such conviction that even her smallest reactions can become comic events.

Alexandra Russo takes a wonderfully different approach as Mrs. White. Stiff, prim, controlled, and armed with impeccably dry humor, Russo understands the power of doing less while the world around her becomes increasingly ridiculous. Her restraint becomes its own comic weapon. A look, a pause, or a perfectly placed line can be every bit as effective as the production’s broadest physical gag.

Julius Alums is an absolute delight as Colonel Mustard. Addled, ridiculous, and frequently several steps behind whatever is happening around him, his Mustard is exactly the sort of character this play needs. Alums commits wholeheartedly to the Colonel’s bewilderment and physical comedy without losing the essential likability underneath all that foolishness. He earns some of the evening’s biggest laughs.

Daved Wilkins brings terrific stage presence to Professor Plum. He is very funny on his own and through his interactions with the other characters. Wilkins listens and reacts beautifully, which is essential in an ensemble comedy where one person’s line frequently becomes another person’s punchline. He gives Plum just the right combination of confidence, questionable judgment, and comic self-importance.

Parker Couch makes Mr. Green’s journey one of the evening’s great pleasures. Couch is astonishingly athletic, throwing himself into the production’s physical comedy with seemingly fearless enthusiasm. Yet the performance is more than a collection of pratfalls and acrobatics. He understands Green’s character arc and carefully builds toward its payoff, making the journey increasingly funny as the evening progresses.

Haley Peter has fun with Yvette, leaning enthusiastically into the broad caricature of the French maid. The role fits comfortably into the heightened world Pounders has created, and Peter contributes some enjoyable physical and verbal comedy to the increasingly frantic household.

CB Feller, Nick Riley, and Thomas Kennebeck round out the company in the ensemble, and all three understand the assignment: in CLUE, there really are no insignificant comic opportunities. Feller is particularly memorable, with both the Cook and the Singing Telegram being wonderfully funny and nearly stealing the scene. Throughout the evening, the ensemble performers help populate a world in which almost anyone who enters Boddy Manor has reason to worry about how long they are likely to remain upright.

The production’s physical comedy receives an enormous boost from fight choreographer Tobie Minor. The movement is exceptionally well conceived and executed, with falls, collisions, struggles, and assorted acts of mayhem appearing appropriately dangerous while remaining delightfully funny. In a production this dependent upon bodies moving quickly through a complicated and tight space, Minor’s work is an essential part of the comedy.

David Utley’s set design is another of the production’s considerable strengths. Boddy Manor must somehow contain an improbable number of rooms while still leaving enough space for a cast to race through them, and Utley finds clever solutions through modular playing spaces, moving walls, changing décor, and continual transformation. The scenery becomes part of the joke: just when we think we understand the geography of the house, another part of it seems ready to reveal itself.

Patrick Anthony’s lighting design complements that flexibility beautifully. There are plenty of dramatic effects appropriate to a murder mystery, but one of the most useful and enjoyable elements is the illuminated system that helps identify where in the sprawling house the action is taking place. It is both practical and playful, helping the audience navigate Boddy Manor without interrupting the speed of the storytelling.

Brett Weaver’s sound design fits the heightened mystery, supporting suspense, comedy, and the production’s rapid shifts without competing with them. Ismael Soto’s properties provide an abundance of period detail, and in CLUE, of course, the props are rather more important than usual. Jenny Hanna Chambers’ costumes effectively establish the familiar characters while giving each a distinct visual identity.

Technical directors Patrick Crowley and Holly Crowley help make the production’s considerable physical machinery possible. There are walls to move, rooms to reveal, bodies to manage, weapons to track, entrances and exits coming from seemingly everywhere, and an ensemble moving at considerable speed. Rehearsal Stage Manager Maria Kruger and Stage Manager Faith Castaneda deserve particular praise for a production with an extraordinary number of moving pieces. The great achievement is that all of that coordination largely disappears into the fun.

And fun is ultimately what Penfold Theatre’s CLUE provides in abundance. There is a mystery here, certainly, but the real pleasure is watching a group of skilled comic actors become increasingly entangled in it. Pounders and his company understand that the audience does not simply want to know who committed the murder. We want to watch these wonderfully ridiculous people attempt to figure it out.

Penfold’s CLUE is fast, clever, physical, and enormously entertaining. Ellis anchors the madness with a terrific performance, while Avery, Alums, Russo, Rabensburg, Wilkins, Couch, and the rest of the company create an ensemble in which comic opportunities are generously passed from actor to actor. Add imaginative scenery, sharp technical work, and physical comedy executed with remarkable precision, and Boddy Manor becomes an awfully enjoyable place to spend an evening even if its survival rate leaves something to be desired.

Was it Colonel Mustard with the candlestick? Mrs. Peacock with the wrench? Professor Plum with the rope? Penfold Theatre wisely understands that the answer is almost beside the point. The real mystery is how this much carefully coordinated chaos can look like everyone is simply having so much fun.

CLUE

Written by Sandy Rustin, Hunter Foster, Eric Price, Michael Holland

Theater Company: Penfold Theatre Company

Venue:2120 N. Mays Street, Suite 290, Round Rock, TX 78664

September 11-October 11, Fridays-Saturdays, 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2:00 pm 

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission

Tickets: $11-29

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