Step aside, Shakespeare, Dame Christie’s here
If you don’t get it the first time, Go Back for Murder
MIT Shakespeare Ensamble
MIT Shakespeare Ensamble
Go Back for Murder
Performed by MIT Shakespeare Ensemble
Little Kresge Theater
Based on the play by Agatha Christie
Directed by Nelson Niu '21
Produced by Zach Obsniuk '20
Going to the theatre is always interesting. You go in, watch some people be someone else for a while, then walk out with either a moral, more questions than you went in with, or feeling that what you’ve been led to believe is false. It’s just a play, so I shouldn’t be salty, but I’m still a little salty. This was a piece in true murder mystery style, in which you cannot be certain of who did it (Mr. Greene in the Library with the Wrench, by the way) until the final reveal, presented and performed masterfully.
The first half of the play was fast-moving and fluid, following the quest of Carla LeMarchant (A.K.A. Carla Crale, Matisse Pepper ’20) to find out how her father was murdered and why her mother was sent to prison (and to her death), even though she believed herself innocent, all of 16 years ago. To this end, she enlists the help of a solicitor, Justin Fogg (John Bond ’19), who initially refused the case. However, upon meeting Carla’s rude and pushy Canadian fiancé, Jeff Rogers (Julian Hernandez ’21), Fogg takes particular interest in prying the truth from the five surviving members of the incident to reconstruct, and, if possible, discover the truth about what happened on that fateful day. To keep the action moving, and the plot thickening, the stage was split into two halves. One was illuminated and the other was darkened, allowing scene changes on the dark half, while action played out in the light, allowing the actors to seamlessly travel from scene to scene.
After the intermission, it was whodunnit time. Now, in the room where it happened, the characters narrate and reenact the events of 16 years ago. The stage now unified, Carla and Justin join us in the audience as the scene unfolds, full of red herrings, drama, old loves revived, and finally a death re-lived. While clear in retrospect, the conclusion was monstrously difficult to guess, even with evidence as given (not salty about being wrong at all…).
Altogether, it was an excellent play put on by excellent performers and personnel! Congratulations to all involved and especially to Nelson for an excellent directing debut!