Agatha Christie Returns From The Dead To Perform A Puppet Show in WHO KILLED GERTRUDE CRUMP?

From the team that brought you Til Death, The Shakespeare Show, No Tweed Too Tight, and the Jessie Award-winning The Little Prince. Who Killed Gertrude Crump? is a plot-twist-a-minute puppet caper playing at Performance Works, February 13-18, 2018, presented by the Vancouver International Puppet Festival's HomeGrown Series.

It's New Year's Eve 1899. One by one, an enigmatic cast of characters arrive by boat to the haunting and isolated Monkswell Manor. That night, famous murder mystery author Gertrude Crump is murdered, mysteriously! The boat becomes dislodged in the storm. No one can leave until the truth is uncovered. As the characters investigate, accuse, suspect, confess, plot, flash-back and engage in general hubbub, the audience is charged with the task of answering one simple question: Who Killed Gertrude Crump?

Acclaimed actor/puppeteer Tara Travis inhabits the ghost of Agatha Christie and animates this tale with a cast of original puppets and a gamut of voices in a haunted house fraught with surprises. Written by Ryan Gladstone who borrows from every single Agatha Christie book and play creating an amalgamation of her strangest characters and most shocking plot twists.

Never before seen in Vancouver, Who Killed Gertrude Crump? had a rough birth in its first inception. It opened in Ottawa the Summer of 2014, the start of a cross-Canada tour where everything that could go wrong did! Puppets fell apart, heads rolled (literally), the set was compromised, and performer Tara Travis nearly had a nervous breakdown. Through the generous support of the BC Arts Council and the Cultch, we have rebuilt the play, surpassing our original vision. Gorgeous new puppets and a monumental new set complete with shadow screens, trap doors, spinning walls, secret passageways and magic tricks was designed and built by master puppet craftsman, and Jessie award winner, Dusty Hagerüd.

Who Killed Gertrude Crump? Written and Directed by Ryan Gladstone, Performed by Tara Travis, Puppets and set created by Dusty Hagerüd, Sound Design by Robbie Grunwald with Drew Jurecka, Lighting Design and Stage Management by Keagan Elrick.

February 13-18, 2018, (February 13-16 8:00pm, February 17-6:00pm, February 18-2:00pm), Venue: Performance Works (1218 Cartwright St., Vancouver, BC).

Photo Credit: Kurt Firla