NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Nov. 20.
PORT ANGELES — Come on over to my castle, says our dashing hero. Join me for a weekend of revelry.
Off we go to join him: Broadway superstar William Gillette, known the world over for portraying Sherlock Holmes.
It’s Christmas Eve, and we’re spending it with a houseful of egos and secrets.
Suddenly, things turn dangerous.
Murder becomes a guest at the gathering.
In his house of tricks and mirrors, Gillette must spring into action, assuming the persona of Holmes himself, to home in on the killer — or killers, as the case might be.
So begins “The Game’s Afoot, or Holmes for the Holidays,” the comedy thriller opening tonight for a three-week run at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse.
Veteran actor Pete Christensen stars as Gillette while John Dixon plays his colleague Felix Geisel, and Kristin Ulsund is Madge Geisel — actors whose favorite sport is can-you-top-this with Shakespeare quotations.
“They’re all quick-witted and smart-mouthed,” Ulsund said of her fellow players, who also include Lynne Murphy as Inspector Goring, Danielle Lorentzen as the young widow-bride Aggie Wheeler, Brian Wendt as Simon Bright and Linda Cameron as Daria Chase, the theater critic.
That Daria, she is “marvelously awful,” director Kathleen Balducci notes.
The critic is a lot of things: a vile gossip-monger, a columnist who metes out publicity like an addictive drug. Oh, and she portrays herself as a psychic medium, urging Gillette and his guests to sit down for a seance.
Cameron, Balducci and Ulsund were also together earlier this year at the playhouse, for a dramatic reading of Raymond Carver’s stories from the new collection Beginners, directed by Jim Guthrie.
Those Carver works can be dark, like black coffee.
“The Game’s Afoot,” Ulsund says, is on the effervescent side, like sparkling wine.
Sure, it’s a murder mystery — it won the 2012 Edgar Award for best play — but it’s a festive, ironic one.
And since it’s set at Christmas time, the players get to wear costumes to match the tone: black and lustrous.
Portraying Martha Gillette, William’s mother, is Kathleen Hussey, who appeared in the Port Angeles Community Players production of Noel Coward’s “Waiting in the Wings” last year.
“She’s a former actress who gets a little theatrical at times . . . she’s kind of in her own little world,” Hussey says of Mrs. Gillette.
Martha has “quite a set-to with Daria. She gets under my skin . . . it’s fun playing with Linda [Cameron], because we get into it,” she says.
The chemistry among the actors make this murder mystery downright delightful, to Hussey’s mind.
“The Game’s Afoot” is graced with “a fun, fun cast,” says Hussey.
“We are enjoying ourselves immensely.”
