TURNERS FALLS — Theater lovers, armchair detectives and fans of spaghetti will all find something that piques their interest at Turners Falls High School’s upcoming performances of “Clue,” the classic board game that was later adapted for the big screen.
The school will put on three performances from Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Oct. 25. Each performance will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be held in the cafeteria, as the show will coincide with a spaghetti dinner.
Doors will open at 6 p.m., and guests will be served spaghetti, salad, garlic knots and options from a dessert tray. Gluten-free pasta will also be available. As attendees eat, the cast will perform around them, using the cafeteria rather than the theater as their stage.
Director Alyssa Comeau said the immersive theater performance will present an added challenge for the students, but it will push them as actors and create a more engaging experience for the audience.
“They have to act to people who are behind them, who are in front of them, who are beside them and they’re gonna be moving around,” Comeau said. “Their body has to portray what’s going on 100% of the time, whereas if they were doing this on the stage, there’d be little break moment where they’d run offstage.”
“Clue,” based on the 1985 film, follows six strangers, given the pseudonyms Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Col. Mustard and Professor Plum, as they arrive at a secluded New England mansion in the 1950s and learn that their host, Mr. Boddy, has been blackmailing them. When he later turns up dead, the cast has to uncover which of them is the murderer.
Staff member Jessica Vachula-Curtis said the school’s Theater Department has put on a lot of musicals in recent years and was excited about the opportunity to do a play. She added that the murder mystery “Clue” felt like the right pick for a performance scheduled right before Halloween.
“We haven’t done a straight play without any music in a long time, so we decided it would be fun to do, and have it right before Halloween weekend,” Vachula-Curtis said.
Comeau added that with the recent death of actor Tim Curry, who played Wadsworth the butler in the film, it felt like the timing was right to put on “Clue.”
“It’s a beloved movie,” Comeau said. “There is a lot of nostalgia to it, and with Tim Curry having just passed, I think people really love it and want to enjoy it.”
Senior Marketa Vachula-Curtis is playing Col. Mustard in the show. She said the colonel is different from other characters she’s portrayed before, and the role has required her to push herself as an actor, thinking about how a gruff old man would stand and speak.
“He’s just a pompous kind of guy who always thinks that he’s right and just says what’s on his mind,” Marketa Vachula-Curtis said. “He doesn’t really have the smartest ideas and can be kind of oblivious, but that’s what makes them so funny.”
Comeau said the cafeteria will be set up like the board game, and divided into blocks with the different rooms and hallways that the cast will run through during the performance. She said the cast and crew members, who have been working on the show since before school started in August, are working on final preparations.
“We’ve rehearsed a lot over the last few months and the vision is starting to come to life,” Comeau said. “It’s hard to do when we don’t have all the set or the props, but they’re starting to get it.”
Junior Ella Argy, who plays Mr. Green, said it’s been difficult to adjust to acting in the room where she and other students eat lunch every day, but she’s excited for when the set is in place and she can fully imagine being inside the mansion.
“It’s been really interesting trying to do it in the cafeteria as opposed to the theater,” Argy said. “I really like it, though, ’cause it feels less like you’re acting on stage to an audience and it feels more like a movie because you’re inside it.”
She said audiences should prepare to experience “Clue” like never before.
Sophomore Nick Damkoehler, playing Wadsworth, said the cafeteria will provide a different perspective for audiences, allowing them to see things that would not have been visible on stage and hinting at the butler’s real identity.
“It’s a very cool character,” Damkoehler said, “and if you pay attention to the behavior and how I act this character, you can see some glimpses of what’s going on.”
Tickets, which include the cost of the spaghetti dinner, are $25 for adults and $15 for students, and should be purchased ahead of time. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit bit.ly/turnersclue.
