first night review: murder for two @ le petit theatre

Double Jeopardy: Murder for Two @ Le Petit Theatre
Review by Todd Perley

In the mood for a cozy mystery this October? A ‘cozy’ being, of course, that most wonderful sub-genre of mysteries where the players are isolated, and the action focuses on the characters (all of whom are suspects), and not the grisly fact of murder itself, as presented by Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Angela Lansbury in “Murder She Wrote,” et al. In a genre that leans heavily on a twist, “Murder for Two” delivers a little extra twist right at the top: there are only two actors in this ensemble piece. How is that possible?

Max Dovale plays detective-wannabe Marcus Moscowicz with joyful, naïve vim and high hopes of getting that big promotion. And Mark Schenfisch plays…well, everyone else. That’s twelve more characters. The first mystery I wanted solved, reading the program before the play, was how they were going to pull this off.

It’s a surprise birthday party for famous novelist and family patriarch Arthur Whitney, and his surprise is delivered (with overkill) by being shot in the head. The detective assigned to the case is an hour away, but local cop Marcus and his silent (translation: non-existent) sidekick Lou are nearby, and they jump at the opportunity to do some sleuthing.

Schenfisch switches between his multitudinous characters with a feverish frenzy, quickly adjusting his hat or grabbing this or that accessory to denote who he is at any given moment, and changing his voice and accent to delineate between the suspects. This framework might turn out to be an incoherent mess, but with the energy, skill, and physicality of classic Robin Williams, we always know who Schenfisch is. You’d need an ace actor to make this work, and they found one. Add to the list of duties for both actors that they must sing and play piano, and I can imagine this would be a casting nightmare to check all those boxes.

Being a pianist myself, I was especially giddy with the music, played by one, the other, or both actors at once, often veering into Victor Borge or Marx Brothers territory with their pianistic pranks.

The setup of one actor playing all but one of the roles doesn’t get tired. On the contrary, the pacing of the whole piece increases steadily, reaching a crescendo of jaw-dropping energy by the end. I often thought Schenfisch’s rapid character changes mimicked a J. S. Bach fugue, voices intertwining like ivy, but not even Bach wrote a fugue for twelve voices.

Local theater veteran Ricky Graham directs this complicated, hilarious opus flawlessly, as I suspected he might, knowing his work as well as I do. Ricky always surpasses your expectations no matter what he puts his hand to.

If I started this play wondering how are they going to pull this off, I left the theater befuddled in a different way, thinking, how DID they pull that off? Did I just see what I thought I saw? Fourteen roles plays by two actors and a ghost, and somehow it all made sense? Howdunnit?

Murder for Two is killing it at Le Petit Theater through October 20th. Click here for ticketing and further information