Central College students will perform the comedy “Murdered to Death” by Peter Gordon at the Pella Opera House. Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. on October 5-8. Before each show, David Folkerts, adjunct instructor of music at Central, will perform a short concert on the pipe organ at 7:10 p.m.
The play is a spoof of the Agatha Christie genre. It takes place in a country manor house in the 1930s as the bungling Inspector Pratt, played by guest actor John Cisar, struggles to solve a murder. Cisar is a member of the Des Moines-based improvisational troupe Comedy Xperiment and the award-winning Incoherent Theatre Company.
Director Ann Wilkinson, instructor of theatre at Central, calls the British farce both sophisticated and childishly silly at the same time. Similar to the skits and sketches of Monty Python — a British comedy group of the 1970s — “Murdered to Death” is popular in the United Kingdom because it pokes fun at beloved detective characters.
“The script is just fun,” said Wilkinson.
One of the highlights of the play is a staged fight. Central brought in an expert in stage combat to teach students the basics of punching, slapping and stage falls.
Even before rehearsals began, Wilkinson and the set, costume and lighting designers had spent well over 200 hours studying and researching the play. The actors, director and stage managers have since devoted three to four hours each night to rehearsal, and the tech and set crews spent afternoons making everything come together.
“It is an intensely cooperative piece of work that only exists as a whole for the relatively few minutes it takes to perform,” said Wilkinson. “But that is the magic of theatre, isn’t it?”
General admission tickets to the show are $8, and student and senior citizen tickets are $6. Admission is free with a Central ID. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and the Pella Opera House.
“We hope to broaden Theatre Central’s exposure to the community,” said Wilkinson, “as well as introduce our students and staff to the great space and programming at the Pella Opera House.”
