| ||||||
The current play is "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940," with showings at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 8, and 8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9 and Saturday, Aug. 10. The Orinda Starlight Village Players are in their 36th season in Orinda Community Park.
Written by John Bishop, the play tells the story of the creative team responsible for a recent Broadway flop (in which three chorus girls were murdered by the mysterious "Stage Door Slasher") as the team assembles for a backer's audition of their new show at the Westchester estate of a wealthy "angel." The house is replete with sliding panels and secret passageways - all of which figure diabolically in the comic mayhem, which follows when the infamous "Slasher" makes his reappearance and strikes again - and again. As the composer, lyricist, actors and director prepare their performance, and a blizzard cuts off any possible retreat, bodies start to drop in plain sight, knives spring out of nowhere, masked figures drag their victims behind swiveling bookcases, and accusing fingers point in all directions. However, and with no thanks to the bumbling police inspector who snowshoes in to investigate, the mystery is solved in the nick of time and the "Slasher" unmasked - but not before the audience has been treated with what the OSVP describe as "a sidesplitting good time and a generous serving of the author's biting, satiric and refreshingly irreverent wit."
In September, the theater group will present Malcolm Cowler's adaptation of Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White."
Reach the reporter at:
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA