Cappies Review of Clue: Onstage (High School Edition) by Edison High School
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Fairfax County Public Schools students are talented actors, musicians, and visual artists. Many FCPS high schools participate in the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Critics and Awards Program for High School Theatre, otherwise known as the Cappies.
The Cappies is a program through which high school theater and journalism students are trained as critics, attend shows at other schools, write reviews, and publish those reviews in local newspapers. There are fifteen Cappies chapters across the United States and Canada.
Editor's Note: This review of Edison High School's production of Clue: Onstage (High School Edition), is written by Nathan Bass of McLean School.
Murder, suspense, and mystery (oh my!): these three usual suspects are sure to captivate any audience. It is no red herring then, that any witnesses to Thomas A. Edison High School's witty and energized performance of Clue: Onstage (High School Edition) left utterly thrilled.
Based on the 1985 movie Clue, which was based on the board game of the same name, Clue: Onstage follows the story of six uniquely suspicious figures as they all arrive to the same party under aliases: Professor Plum, Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Miss Scarlett, and Mrs. Peacock. When their host for the night, Mr. Boddy, turns up dead, they are plunged into a night of chaos and comedy as bodies pile up and secrets are exposed while they attempt to figure out the true culprit behind it all.
Clue flourishes only with its notorious six suspects, and their performances certainly did not disappoint. Each actor brought something refreshing to the table, whether that be individual inflections or a standout sub-plot, helping the audience distinguish between their distinctive personalities. Mr. Green (Porter Bertman) established his nervous personality the second he walked into Boddy Manor, utilizing jumpy physical movements and abrupt facial expressions to keep the audience engaged and convinced of the persona of Mr. Green, eventually causing an even larger reaction when his true identity was revealed.
Emphasis must also be placed on Mrs. Peacock (Paris Robinson) and Colonel Mustard (Avery Boyd), whose performances contrasted beautifully, one based on vibrancy and blood curdling screams, the other based on highly effective dry humor that had comedic timing in a chokehold. In the midst of the excited interactions between the six suspects, Wadsworth (Sean Smith) provided a steady and grounded performance backed up by an impeccable accent fitting of the Butler trope. However, Smith avoided stagnancy, and capitalized on the comedic effect of the character at every moment, giving it new life altogether towards the end with an impassioned monologue that received a wave of gasps from the audience, a feat impressive for any actor.
The task of representing the intricacies of a mansion onstage is not an easy one, but the set crew (Nameerah Ali, Noor Shahid, Sean Smith, Antonio Villavicenio, Keegan Alexander) took care of it seamlessly, maintaining a balance between a complex and detailed stationary set, and more simplistic moving set pieces. Hand in hand with an effective lighting department (Kiara Frey, Arcadia Perszyk, Malyha Bashar), timely spotlights were able to place focus on these moving pieces (like a door on wheels and a rolling safe), allowing the manor to feature many more rooms (and potential murder locations) than would previously have been possible onstage. The costumes (Cathy Walt, Rachel Jacobson, Corvus Arnold, Harper McClure, Monroe Dove) highlighted the personalities of the six suspects perfectly, with the funeral-like costume of Mrs. White (Dara Pershing) and the array of colors on the bottom of Mrs. Peacock's otherwise blue dress, hinting at her more covert character traits.
Trying to live up to the expectations that come from adapting a classic piece of media can be intimidating, but Thomas A. Edison's production of Clue: Onstage did so thrillingly, keeping the audience asking "Whodunnit?" as it gave us ninety minutes of pure fun.
