Capital Region Performance Gallery

by Dick Frantzreb

There’s a special ambience at a production of the Lincoln Theatre Company. After you enter the Lincoln Civic Center, which after several years of remodeling has become an intimate, welcoming performance space, you experience a relaxed atmosphere. The snack bar is open before the show, and people are free to bring their drinks and snacks to their comfortable seats. Many of the patrons seem to know one another, and amid the chatter of conversation, one can take one’s seat and examine the set for the production. In this case, it was the expansive living room of an old house in Vermont, with a writer’s desk plus typewriter, in front of a bookshelf. On the other side of the room was a fireplace, a couple of overstuffed chairs, a settee, tables, and a fireplace. Draperies were hanging on one wall in front of a hallway, while another hallway ran in the opposite direction, and at the center of the set, there were stairs leading to a landing and the rooms of the second story.

When the audience was finally seated and the house lights had gone down, Lincoln Theatre Company co-founder and board member (and director of this production), Paul Schechter, took the stage to greet us. He told us of coming productions and of the latest improvements to the building. Then he asked how many in the audience were attending an LTC production for the first time. About one-third of the hands in the room went up, and he commented that he hoped they, like the regulars in the room, would “think of the Lincoln Theatre Company as their hometown theatre.”

(Click here to open the program in a new window.)

With preliminaries out of the way and the theatre dark again, we were ready for Out of Sight… Out of Murder. The music of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” came up, accented with a clap of thunder in the still-darkened room. Writer Peter Knight, played by Jon Ball, was working at his typewriter, about to be interrupted by a phone call from his literary agent. While still on the phone, he was joined by housekeeper Minna, played by Angela Blas. With her old-fashioned New England personality and accent, she was the first of the comic characters who would be foils to Peter.

Presently Peter continues writing his novel and verbally describes the first character, Lydia.  She appears at the top of the stairs, acting out everything he says about her. As she reacts to his description, we in the audience begin to realize that she knows she’s just a character. Peter goes on typing, oblivious to her, until after thunder and a blackout, he hears her voice and sees her. That’s the special twist on this “murder mystery” ― the author’s characters appear with self-awareness, as if they had been warehoused in Central Casting. Then they interact with him and each other, with full knowledge of the ephemeral quality of their existence. Peter is initially confused but eventually accepts the situation and becomes part of his characters’ anxiety about who will be murdered in the story he hasn’t yet written ― as they bicker with him and one another.

The characters are a diverse lot:

• Lydia, played by Betsy Edwards, is a self-absorbed, sophisticated, extroverted socialite.
• Cogburn, played by Alan Wiltse, is the stiff, solicitous butler.
• Kay, played by Kathleen Brace, is the cute, cheerful ingenue.
• Fiona, played by Dawn DeBenedetto Maurer, is a straight-laced, cynical, opinionated spinster (or “character lady”).
• Addie, played by Carolyn Duncan, is the over-wrought maid who’s pregnant and always crying.
• Dick, played by Eric Fawcett, is the young, devil-may-care, would-be love interest for Kay.
• Jordan, played by Paul Greisen, is the elderly lawyer and husband of the much-younger Lydia.  It is he who reads the will and reveals secrets.

All these characters get their extended time with the audience’s attention, as they demonstrate their distinctive humorous personality quirks.

Betsy Edwards & Jon Ball	Paul Greisen	Carolyn Duncan & Jon Ball
Betsy Edwards & Alan Wiltse	Jon Ball & Dawn DeBenedetto Maurer	All friends again

It doesn't take long for us in the audience to realize that the setting of this “murder mystery” has a unique premise: an author’s characters each have an independent existence, with their own back-story, having “worked” for other writers. And they are free to interact with each other (and the author) as characters of a novel-in-process in which their fate is not necessarily determined. They get on each other’s nerves, occasionally exploding in emotion, as one humorous situation or exchange leads to another.

So what is it that makes this flight of fantasy so entertaining for the audience? Of course, the surprising premise grabs your attention, and the writing is good: witty and with many literary and contemporary social references for the erudite among us. But it is the crafting of these characters that makes it all work. Each of these performers is a gifted comic actor, with their instincts no doubt expertly honed by director, Paul Schechter. For me, and I’m sure for everyone else in this opening night audience, it was a pleasure to see them work, as we laughed at one outrageous development after another.

Really this show isn’t much of a murder mystery. The three deaths aren’t shocking at all, and the anxiety of the surviving characters is too laced with comedy to be disquieting. Rather, Out of Sight… Out of Murder is a brilliant, imaginative parody of the murder mystery genre. And a lot of the fun of experiencing it lies in its exploration of the “what if” ― i.e. what if murder mystery characters could interact with their author, what if they were conscious of their own identity as a character, what if they had independent feelings, what if they were able to improvise on their character, etc.

For me, and I’m sure for the rest of tonight’s audience, all of this amounted to a pleasant, laugh-infused flight of fancy, based on good writing, good directing, and some truly outstanding comic acting.