There were more suspects than you could shake a palm tree branch at in Sun Lakes Community Theatre’s most recent production, directed by Sandy Pallett and her associate director Diane Jaber. Set in a cheap bar on an island off Mystique, the 1940s-style black-and-white nod to film noir was filled with plots, subplots, liars, and opportunists.
Detective Rick Archer (Lew Crawford) had plenty of clues to solve while trying to get femme fatale Sheila Wonderly (Sally Holberg) to admit her true identity. Lew was definitely debonair, and Sally had lots of attitude and lust for life.
The café was run by the very beautiful Madam Toureau (Phyllis Novy) who tried her best to keep her customers happy, but they just kept dropping dead. Phyllis was elegant and was just the right amount of mysterious.
Meanwhile, voodoo priestess Marie Larue (Ginger Henry) was busy with pins and a doll, not to mention playing hanky-panky with the two-bit gun runner Thursby (Dennis Dannehl). Ginger was convincing, including her Jamaican accent, and Dennis amusingly pulled off the longest death scene ever seen.
Spouting shady legal advice and flirting with the ladies, Simon Gutterman (Rick Strohl) skulked around suspiciously. Rick was lasciviously intriguing and seemed to be guilty of lots of deeds. The black market dealer Toni Cario (Andrea Hummel) and the Dutch blackmailer Vandegilder (Mary Vandergriff) were obviously both up to no good. Andrea was terrifyingly threatening, and Mary stirred up trouble with her accusations and attempted murder of Detective Archer. But that didn’t end well for Mary, as she was soon murdered herself.
By the time the British cop Deputy Inspector Rigfield (Joyce Recupido) showed up, there had been three murders. Joyce was believable with her no-nonsense investigative style.
During all this action-packed business, a chorus of cocktail-swigging onlookers (Greg Posniack, Mario Carranza, Kathy Tomasewski, and Sharon Guzman) observed and gossiped about the goings on.
Audiences made their best guesses about who the murderer was at the end of each performance. Hats off to the cast for giving patrons an interactive murder mystery to solve.