DISCLAIMER: Professional pride, nor prejudice, has nothing to do with the assessment that the most interesting and best-acted character in the Princeton Summer Theater production of Ken Ludwig’s “The Game’s Afoot” is the theater critic.
Yes, the theater critic, who is invited, for reasons it would be naughty to disclose, by actor-playwright William Gillette to a Christmas gathering of theater folk she has snubbed or maligned, however wittily, in what she says is the most influential newspaper column in the United States. The holiday “do” takes place at Gillette’s newly occupied landmark home, a castle on the Connecticut River, one you can visit if you attend a show at East Haddam’s Goodspeed Opera House. (Or even if you don’t.)
Gillette, author, with Arthur Conan Doyle’s cooperation and blessing, of a wildly popular stage version of “Sherlock Holmes” that kept him occupied for several decades at the turn of the last century and was successfully revived on Broadway in 1974, has been shot from the audience and wounded in the final performance of the 1936 season of his show (an anachronism) and asks guests to join him for Christmas while he is recovering.
“The Game’s Afoot” begins with the climax scene from “Sherlock Holmes,” one that tellingly relates how Holmes withholds one bit of evidence to protect someone whose reputation he doesn’t want to see tarnished by her brush with crime, and includes the gun shot that pierces Gillette’s shoulder during the curtain call.
After playing Holmes for so long, Gillette imagines himself to be a gifted sleuth and asks his cast members and the critic to his castle in a ploy to catch his would-be murderer.
Of course, “The Game’s Afoot” is by Ken Ludwig, and while it retains suspense and evolves into an engaging mystery by its second act, it is as comic in tone as it is serious, marrying farce, silly character traits, and running gags, such as the party guests, being actors, lapsing into Shakespeare, along with salient clues and genuine concern for the safety of the characters.
It is refreshing that Ludwig keeps the mystery in sight and that Summer Theater director Wasif Sami brings it in gradual stages to the fore so that Sherlock Holmes and the investigation of a crime doesn’t get lost in the comic shuffle, as frequently happens today.
Sami and an uneven cast miss some of Ludwig’s nuances and don’t quite catch every joke in his dialogue during a first act that borders on drawing room comedy, but they manage, even in the midst of one extended farcical sequence involving a corpse and a room hidden behind a revolving wall, to bring matters home in a more finely-tuned second act.
Summer Theater’s “Game’s Afoot” doesn’t always retain a necessary crispness, but it and its cast are amiable enough that you’re willing to go along with the lapses and take pleasure in the scenes or speeches that coalesce more tightly, for instance a totally riveting delivery by Lana Gaige, as Holmes, about how crime detection comes down to being a game.
One overriding problem at the beginning of Sami’s production is the inability of several cast members to project. Some passages, including key lines, Shakespearean or not, in the early scenes are nearly inaudible. (I had to cock my left ear to pick up all of the dialogue during some scenes, and I have excellent hearing.)
There’s a point about 15 minutes into the piece where Holmes asks his guests in general something akin to “Did everybody hear me?” I would never say anything out loud during a performance, but in my head, I was answering, “No, not always,” a reference to many in Sami’s company, though not to Gaige, who is consistently audible and clear.
The situation gets worse when characters speak upstage or at angles. The Hamilton Murray Theater is too small a house for the muffled readings to continue. Come on, team, vocal warmups! Practice! Test each other. Make folks hear you in the lounge.
One actor that finds nuances and more in not one but two characters is Emmie Collins who doubles as the overly candid critic and the local detective who arrives at Gillette Castle to solve a murder that takes place there.
Collins is a breath of fresh air when she arrives last among the cast on the Summer Theater stage. Confident, appropriately big in personality and gesture, and brittle in a way that enhances Ludwig’s dialogue, Collins brings extra liveliness, verve, intention, and wit to her work.
As the critic, Daria Chase, she is unapologetically honest and encourages the actors who may have stung by her spoken barbs to be better sports and realize she’s doing a job that involves entertaining a reader while being as accurate as critical subjectivity allows in composing her judgments.
In the context of “The Game’s Afoot,” that means rubbing occasional salt into reopened wounds, telling sensitive actors she means every word she writes, and letting it be known she could write much more if she wanted to use her column to spill juicy, gossipy beans.
Collins makes Daria delightful, in a sophisticated way, to the Summer Stage audience, and a bane to the actors who bristle at practically every comment she makes.
Daria is brought to Gillette Castle for a purpose, to conduct a seance that might reveal who shot William Gillette. Collins is excellent as a woman who takes her spiritual work seriously and expects it to be treated in kind. This requires Collins turning tables and going from catty, chatty, and rude to businesslike and respectful of her craft. She handles the transition perfectly.
And it’s not the only time Collins has to abandon one mood, voice, and demeanor for another. Offensive, offended Daria makes her exit following Gillette’s reasoned but botched mockery of her seance, giving Collins the chance to return to the stage as Inspector Goring of the local police, unexplained British accent and all.
Collins is as plucky and amusing as Goring as she is animated and provocative as Daria.
Goring explains her methods as she proceeds with her investigation, and Collins makes that process into shrewdness that masquerades as bumbling. In doing so, she finds the comic touch that galvanizes the second act of Sami’s production and makes Ludwig’s plays stronger and more pointed. All while being an entertaining, effective policewoman.
Collins was notable in roles she played at Summer Theater a few seasons back. She has returned more seasoned and is a good example for some of this year’s actors, such as Lucy Grunden and Orion Lopez-Ramirez, who show their potential in their “Game’s Afoot” performances.
Lana Gaige grows in stature and assurance as their performance proceeds.
Gaige seems a tad clownish in Gillette’s first appearances, but as matters in Gillette’s house become more intense, as finding a murderer from among friends replaces discovering who might have shot him, and as it becomes clear Gillette may have to protect someone the same way Holmes does, Gaige rises to the occasion. Their second act is superb, with moments that show thoughtfulness and the way snowballing calamity affects Gillette’s usually steady, stoic demeanor by adding worry and apprehension to his real-life repertoire.
In profile, Gaige is quite Holmes-like and has the look of a matinee idol. All through “Game’s Afoot,” I kept thinking they would be aptly cast as another playwright, Oscar Wilde, whom Gaige physically resembles.
Orion Lopez-Ramirez finds a smart route to the callow but scheming Simon Bright, a juvenile lead in Gillette’s company and one who figures out how to ease his existence off-stage. Lopez-Ramirez is agile, youthful, and even a little naive, all of which informs his character’s secret side.
Lucy Grunden does well as the most reasonable, if also most conspiratorial among Gillette’s group. Alex Conboy reminds one of the period in which Ludwig sets “Game’s Afoot” in taking the style of matrons from movies from the 1930s. Sidney Humes-James cleverly mutes aspects of the character, an actress and newlywed who is also an heiress. Ja’quann Spann shows a knack for physical comedy, both in his double takes and a choreographed scene he does with Gaige and a corpse.
Jeff Van Nelson provides another in a string of elegant yet utilitarian sets for Summer Theater. He provides the right proportions of Christmas decorations and the kind of furniture and props Gillette would have at a country estate.
Susan McClernon’s costumes were perfect for “Game’s Afoot’s” period. I especially enjoyed the witty touch of having Humes-James dressed in a hunter green dress while Grunden wore a red dress, bringing a Christmas touch to their costumes.
Florencia Curchitser’s lighting was eerie at times, especially in the seance scene when the snow falling outside the castle took on the shape of a spirit or ghost. Colin Lansky’s sound design certainly let you know a storm was afoot. The boom of the thunder was pronounced while everyday things like a ringing telephone or the playing back of an audio tape registered as totally authentic.
The Game’s Afoot, Princeton Summer Theater, Hamilton Murray Theater, Princeton University. Through Saturday, July 19. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $30 to $35. www.princetonsummertheater.org.
Emmie Collins, rear, and Lana Gaige, front, in ‘The Games’ Afoot’ at Princeton Summer Theater through Saturday, July 19.,
