AHSPA’s Clue: Everyone is Guilty (Of Having a Good Time)

Murder and mayhem are on the table as AHSPA’s hilarious whodunnit keeps audiences guessing till the end

Staff Writer

Six characters. Six murder weapons. Nine rooms. AHSPA’s fall production of Clue opened on November 9th with a matinee show. The stage adaptation of the 1985 cult classic followed a humorous script that is equal parts farce and over-the-top thrill.

The story unfolds in a mansion, where six guests are invited to a mysterious dinner and expected to take on a color-coded name. It is revealed that the guests are all invited for the same reason, they are being blackmailed by the host, Mr. Boddy (Chris Vallejo). To keep their secrets safe, each of the characters is given a weapon to murder the butler, Mr. Wadsworth (Chase Hsu). Lights go out, Mr. Boddy dies, and fingers start being pointed. The rest of the 90 minutes of Clue are spent in a bizarre wild goose chase where tensions rise as quickly as the body count.

The colorful guests include Ms. Scarlet (Vanessa Hinh) the playfully judgemental cynic, Mr. Green (Jarod Reyes) the nervous everyman, Mrs. Peacock (Lucy Indorante) the eccentric wife of a politician, Somber widow Mrs. White (Madyson Tran), clueless Colonel Mustard (Ayaan Arif), and arrogant professor Plum (Neel Garud). The 1950’s structured sets make Boddy Manor a character itself, with several moving pieces and hidden cavities.

The pacing is fairly slow in the beginning, but things quickly escalate after the first murder and characters scramble on stage like pieces on a board game. With no intermission, the stakes and absurdity amp up with little time to come up for air.

Clue’s physical humor is nostalgic to that of the 50’s, recently usurped by sarcasm and reference humor. However, the slapstick humor does not go stale when accompanied by witty one-liners and lightning-fast delivery. In a play where bodies tumble out of closets and come back from the dead, the actors go into every ridiculous situation thrown at them with complete seriousness and chemistry that only strengthens the existing character dynamics.

However, each actor had a different precision to their performance. Notably, Hsu’s portrayal of the titular Wadsworth, sporting a British accent and crisp comedic timing, Reyes’s seamless final performance, and Indorante’s delicate balance of Mrs. Peacock’s judgmental personality with her attempts to save face.

The play does a clever take on the film’s alternative endings by having the characters “rewind” the situation and present their theories. This is when the comedy goes from entertaining to memorable. While they switch from one ending to another, the play seems to pose an irony of character, posing the question of how much the characters mirror the people they accuse. The approach could be tiring in a stage adaptation but the self-awareness keeps the reveal interesting in its chaos. Turns out, in this murder mystery, the game is not quite afoot. The anticipation for a reveal usually drives a whoddunit, but Clue delivers shock with its charm and energy. It thrives in the characters distinct personalities and unwillingness to trust one another, creating a unique chemistry all together.