Orion Leduc has called his family to Marlgate Manor in the English countryside to put together a limerick. The poem is the clue to finding the fortune needed to save the old homestead from becoming a tourist attraction.
“But Why Bump Off Barnaby?” is Winterport Open Stage’s fall offering. It is a farce disguised as a murder mystery replete with a secret passageway, a thunderstorm, scary music and uneven British accents. It is a delightfully silly production that never takes itself too seriously with a mostly fine cast and a set that nearly steals the show.
The play was written in 1981 by Rick Abbot, a pen name for Chicagoan Jack Sharkey, who wrote more than 80 plays and published dozens of short stories and seven novels in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. He died of cancer in 1992 at the age of 61.
Erik Perkins, who has acted in and directed plays in Belfast, makes his directorial debut with the Winterport company in this production. He expertly paces the three-act play to its surprising climax, emphasizing the laughs. His 10 actors mine every ounce of eccentricity out of their characters for rib-tickling results despite a few weak performances.
Orion (Steven Douglas) calls his family — Barnaby (Nick Newman), Barbara (Katy England), Rosalind (Katie Glesner), Cleo (Jenny Hart) and Dora (Veronica Perry) — to the mansion even though he hasn’t seen most of them for years. Former nanny Barnsy (Cassy Martin), Dora’s fiance Jeff (Clayton Perry), the butler Medkins (Zach Field) and maid Magnolia (Natalie Macilroy) also figure in the mystery.
Field, best known in Greater Bangor as a magician, is engaging and entertaining as the butler who knows more than he tells. He is captivating in the role every time he steps on stage.
Douglas, England, Glesner, Hart and Clayton Perry give equally fine performances. They milk every laugh possible out of the script and appear to be having a grand time in their roles.
Because the theater company performs on a relatively small stage in the middle school multi-purpose room, sets often are barebones, but not this time. Designer Robert Deslauriers creates a realistic parlor with a revolving wall, a staircase and French doors to a garden. Portraits of ancestors, painted by Taryn Richendollar and Adele Drake, who peer down on the antics, grace the walls. Deslauriers deserves a standing ovation for his set alone. He also devised the interesting lighting design, along with Perkins.
Winterport Open Stage is in its 30th year. It is the second-oldest non-professional theater group in Greater Bangor. Only Bangor Community Theatre, founded in 1969, is older.
“But Why Bump Off Barnaby?” is typical of the plays the Winterport company has produced — funny, frothy and farcical. It also is a triumphant comeback to a full-length, three-act play after the 90-minute, two character “Popcorn Falls” that was launched in May, the company’s first show since 2019 due to the pandemic.
The script is not as sophisticated as Agatha Christie’s play “The Mousetrap,” but all the fun the cast has on stage is infectious, resulting in the audience having just as good a time.
Winterport Open Stage will perform “But Why Bump Off Barnaby?” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Samuel L Wagner Middle School, 19 William Way, in Winterport. For more information, visit winterportopenstage.net.