M-PHS presents “Clue”

A challenge for the technical crew, the Marysville-Pilchuck High School production of “Clue” brings to life the board-game characters of the high school students’ childhoods.

A challenge for the technical crew, the Marysville-Pilchuck High School production of “Clue” brings to life the board-game characters of the high school students’ childhoods.

“Our parents and grandparents, too, have memories of playing the game,” said Wolfgang Eastman who plays Mr. Green.

The 1980s movie was set in the 1950s. A classic “whodunit” with a group of suspicious characters gathered in a mansion on a hill, the comedy murder mystery features “a bunch of slap stick and conspiracy,” said Nick Poling, the butler who invited all eccentric characters to the mansion.

The popular game comes to life in this mystery-comedy based on the 1985 movie. Six people are invited to Hill House for dinner and for a little something else. Once they arrive, they meet Wadsworth the butler. Soon their host, Mr. Boddy, arrives and the guests get a chance to know one another. Professor Plum works for the UN, Mr. Green is a government agent, Mrs. Peacock is a senator’s wife, Mrs. White had two husbands who disappeared under “mysterious” circumstances, Colonel Mustard is a real colonel, and Ms. Scarlet runs a specialized hotel. Mr. Boddy gives everyone weapons which includes a candlestick, rope, lead pipe, wrench, revolver, and knife. Mr. Boddy switches off the lights and when they come back on, someone has killed Mr. Boddy. Everyone then searches the house to see if it was a mysterious seventh person who done it, since no one is confessing. As they search, other people show up at the house and soon end up dead. Wadsworth has a good idea who did it, so he recreates all the events of the evening to find out who. This play, like the movie, has three possible endings and all three are revealed during each show.

“This show boasts one of the biggest sets that I’ve made,” said director Roy Klementsen. “I had to create 11 rooms of Hill House and many of the rooms are used simultneously throughout the show.”

“It makes for an interesting challenge for the characters and even more so for our light and sound crew who have the task of keeping track of where all of the characters are moving at all times,” Klementson said.

The actors all agree.

“It’s a hilarious bunch of slapstick, conspiracy with some hilarious sexual innuendos,” said Nick Poling, who plays the butler.