Murder Most Fowl

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Seventeen years ago a murder took place in the Green Room of the Denver Center Consortium Theatre, and the murder still hasn’t been solved. The file has been opened and reopened a skillion times. The conclusion always comes out differently.

(From left to right) Rick Amick, Michael Shaloub, LuAnn Buckstein, Pamela Clifton, and Bob Wells star in Murder Most Fowl.

Murder Most Fowl has returned to the Avenue Theatre for an unfortunately short run, closing Saturday, December 31, 2005. Written by Chicken Lips’ Bob Wells and John Ashton, this conundrum Consortium murder mystery gained strength, power and new life this year with the addition of three new cast members bringing fresh faces, fresh insights, and fresh comments. The ever so tangled upside down comedic murder mystery world deciphering bizarre behavior by a cast readying itself for opening night of Macbeth captivates. Always captivates with a giggle, a hoot, a sniggle, and a right out there in front of all the faces, a laugh.

Hopefully, this zany scenario will continue year after year after year with the murder never really being solved. It is just great fun zipped in bubble wrap each night waiting for the audience to make the final determination. Since each audience is different, each seeing something new, each thinking they see something new, each fantasizing they see something new, the outcome depends upon how awake they are, and what nonsensical thing someone will do next. With 12 minutes before curtain for Macbeth, the Green Room is abuzz. The star of the show, Robert Poulet (voiced by Alan Dumas) bleeds into the Green Room resonating with an overly boisterous, arrogant voice warm-up. Never to be seen on stage. Poulet never makes it out of his dressing room except with knife disguised as a rubber chicken plunged into his chest. Fortunately, the audience doesn’t see that either.

With a nervous twitch in his leg, and his arms, and his face, stage manager Max Nugget, giggly played by Wells, rambles back and forth calling out the minutes before curtain time. Hammond Dreggs paces the room. As Poulet’s understudy, he has just learned Poulet goes on, and he is relegated to playing the Third Witch and a dead body. (Aha! Motive!) Not happy in the slightest. Considering Rick Amick took on the role only a week before, he had great fun wrapping his tongue around his eyeteeth so he couldn’t see what he was saying. Amick’s expertise shone through the fun house of frivolity. His fumbling for lines dovetailed into Dreggs’ bumbling efforts of secret mysterious phone calls, playing with and hiding objects.

In tussled hair combed with a lawn mower, comic genius Pam Clifton reprises her Holly Pharm role with extended energy fed by this particular screwball cast. Holly arrives nine minutes before curtain. She would be on the arm of a producer of sorts, Dexter Coop if she could have found his arm. Amongst other things, both have been drinking their dinner. Michael Shaloub comfortably fits the Coop’s demeanor. Four minutes to curtain Max gets to tell Holly her favorite “out damn spot” speech has been cut. Poulet wants to do it because he thinks he can do it better. (Certain motive here.)

Everybody has a motive for doing Poulet in. Everyone wishes someone would do it, making no bones about it. Macbeth begins. Poulet misses his cue, and it is Max who finds Poulet with the rubber chicken sticking out of his chest, aided and abetted, of course, with a knife.

Now the plot thickens. The police are called, and Harla N. Saunders returns. She appeared earlier to get Holly’s autograph, and now she reveals she is a detective. For 16 years Ashton molded the role with casual attitude, investigative stance, and an almost straight face, one step away from laughing out loud. For obvious reasons, his character’s name was Harlan Saunders. This year, LuAnne Buckstein fills the detective shoes and trench coat. She grabs the role by the throat turning it into her own. She has big shoes to fill and a long creative history to follow. She does it with aplomb, with a detective’s stance and a giggle hiding behind every word.

Everybody digs at everyone else. Everyone suspects everyone else. Hammond, irritated with Holly’s diarrhea of the mouth asks her “If you went to a mind reader, would you get half off?”

Everyone is constantly busy hiding things, moving things, opening cases, picking up pillows, stuffing things all designed to keep the audience on their toes.

To solve the unruly mystery, Saunders, turns to the audience. Act II gives opportunity to ask the characters whatever questions crease the mind. This is where the funny turns spontaneously funny, and the expertise of these artists stand out. They have to be ready for anything thrown at them and their skill for on-the-spot improvisational material must be provided in split second timing. They do and they do it ‘funnily’ well.

On a green room set designed by Michael R. Duran, cluttered with notices, old furniture, posters of Poulet’s questionable masterpieces, one sports his appearance in Shakespeare’s Omelet.

It is unfortunate the run is short. It is just as fun as it has been for the past 16 years. Murder Most Fowl returns next year, hopefully for a longer run with Producer Wells. Amick will have plenty of time to learn his lines, though he will be hard-pressed to be any mire hysterical than he is now.

Time is short. Call the Avenue NOW!!!