DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
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July 12-27
Wollongong Workshop Theatre
Tickets: trybooking.com/52811
The Workshop Theatre's latest murder mystery spoof is "a cross between Seinfeld and Agatha Christie", according to director Michael Connor.
Humorous whodunits have proved popular for the theatre group and Death by Chocolate is the third such offering in recent years.
But where the previous two productions - Murdered to Death and Secondary Cause of Death - were set in British manor houses in the 1930s and '40s, Death by Chocolate is set in a health resort in upstate New York in the 1980s.
"For me it was refreshing to look at an American version of a whodunit and one that still had the same level of fun as the two English versions we did earlier," says Connor, who also directed the two earlier productions.
"The comedy is quite American and we've exaggerated the differences of the setting, which we might not have done if we hadn't done those other plays previously.
"It's still a murder mystery and follows the same sort of formula where murders are committed and we're trying to find out who did it.
"It's a good play for those who want to come along and be entertained, but also for those who want to work out who the murderer is so they can turn around and say to somebody at the end, 'I knew it was them!'. "
The play is set in the newly renovated Meadowbrook Health Resort, where members are dropping like flies.
The resort's new manager, John Stone, teams up with mystery writer and amateur sleuth Ed Parlor to find the killer.
Ben Verdon, who plays Stone, says the audience is in for an entertaining evening.
"There are a few sight gags and some very broad, bawdy type characters so it should be a lot of fun for the audience," he says.
One of the challenges for the actors, says Verdon, has been to make the somewhat over-the-top characters believable enough for audience members to take the murder mystery element of the play seriously.
"There is a temptation to play it up and ham it up, but you have to allow for the fact that everyone can't do that and you have to try to tap in to the serious nature of the character as well," he says.
His advice for audience members is to "have your thinking caps on because there are a few twists and turns".
Connor says some people will work out who the murderer is before the end, but he hopes to keep some of his audience flummoxed.
"One piece of advice I have been giving everyone in the cast is to think of their character as the murderer - behave a little bit like you are the murderer even if you know you are not - because you want to string the audience along," he says.
"You want them to think anybody could be the murderer and usually it is a big surprise."