The Footlight Players present “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” a solve-it-yourself musical, at the Footlight Theatre in Michigan City, April 17-19, 24-26 and May 1-3.
This musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ last, unfinished novel allows the audience to decide who murdered the mysterious orphan Edwin Drood.
The musical is presented in the style of a Victorian music hall, with a master of ceremonies, a woman playing Drood and other conventions of the period.
Director Leslie Flores says the script is unique for both audience and cast members, who are all involved in the interpretation and development of the performance.
She explains, “It was the last novel that Dickens wrote but he passed away before he finished it and so no one knows how it ends. This performance is a play within a play. There is a troupe of performers in England in the Victorian era and they decide they are going to perform this story and they will write the ending to this story, so it becomes a murder mystery.”
“There is a set of performers who come out and perform the first part of the story up until the time when Dickens is said to lay down his pen forever. With the clues from the first part of the play, the audience gets to decide who killed Edwin Drood,” says Flores.
After performing Edwin Drood herself in a production of the popular musical two decades ago, Flores says she always felt an affinity for the unfinished piece.
“It’s very tongue-in-cheek. What I love about this particular piece is it’s done in melodrama style. It’s a lost art and this is one of the things that has been very difficult to get across to the cast, to overact, overreact, use big movements and pose. Much of the blocking is full front to the audience, don’t look at the person you’re talking to. It’s a certain style of theater and ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ gives a wonderful example of it. You’d think it would be easy but it is not,” says Flores.
The cast is certainly up to the task, says Flores, who promises an entertaining performance for audience members.
She says, “We have veteran actors in the play and three of the performers have directed themselves. The Footlight Theatre is a true-traditional black-box theater so everything is very small and very intimate and the audience member experiences a performance focused on the performer.”
The cast includes Luanne Pezel, Caitlyn Desjardins, Noel Carlson, Laura Meyer, George Maslankowski, Hillary Havlin, Alexander Bonner, Alice Dickey, Dutch Williams, Thom Nelson, Anthony Holt, Karen Arden, Debbie Bartholomew, Emil Cripe and Amanda Sixbury.
‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’
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Footlight Theatre, 1705 Franklin Street, Michigan City
7:30 p.m. April 17-19, 24-26 and May 1-3, with 2 p.m. matinee on Sundays
Tickets: $10-$15
Information: 219-874-4035 or footlightplayers.org