The Peterborough Theatre Guild celebrates its landmark 50th season with a mixture of drama, mystery and murder in director David Morris’ production of Ravenscroft.
Part whodunit and part spoof, Ravenscroft is an daring choice to open this landmark season, but the talented cast — as well as the clever twists and turns — captivates the audience until the very end.
Written by American playwright Don Nigro, Ravenscroft is one in a series of plays about Nigro’s original character Inspector Ruffing. In this installment of Nigro’s mystery series, Inspector Ruffing (Mark Caravaggio) is called to Ravenscroft, an isolated manor in a rural English county in 1905 — where a handsome handyman lies dead at the bottom of a staircase.
Inside are five women, all with their own secrets and lies and motivations for killing the young man.
Could the killer be Marcy (Jolene Wittig-Jones), the young mistress who denied the dead man’s advances? Perhaps it was Gillian Ravenscroft (Talen Waller), the eccentric teenage girl who harbored a crush on the man.
And what about Mrs. Ravenscroft (Kate Kelly) whose husband died in the exact same manner only months before? What does the housekeeper Mrs. French (Cindy Wardrope) know that she isn’t telling?
And then there’s Dolly (Jennifer Carr), the anxious addle-brained maid who’s harboring secrets that even she may not understand.
And what about the stories of the ghost in the white dressing gown who does a deathly dance at the top of the staircase? Could Ravenscroft be cursed?
Inspector Ruffing has a big job sorting through the secrets, lies, innuendo, confessions, and smoke screens as he tries to discover why one man is dead and what really happened at Ravenscroft. Can the audience figure out the mystery before the detective does?
In an often wordy play filled with double talk and plot twists galore, Mark Caravaggio’s performance of Inspector Ruffing is exceptional given he is continuously in the spotlight for the entire length of the production.
Never getting a break in the action and never falling out of character in a play where each act is a single scene, Caravaggio must not only remember what could be a potentially tedious role, but he must keep the characters, the facts and the clues straight so that the audience can put together the pieces of a very complex puzzle. Never faltering on a line or breaking character, Caravaggio runs a grueling marathon on stage — making him an impressive leading man.
Each of the actresses creates a unique and compelling character, adding her own unique flavor to the show.
Jolene Whittig-Jones is the tragic ingénue, while Kate Kelly plays the grandiose double-talking lady of the manor. Meanwhile, Cindy Wardrope makes a perfect foil for Jennifer Carr’s often humorous performance as the lovable but simple house maid.
But it’s Talen Waller who steals the show as the eccentric and deranged Gillian Ravenscroft. The youngest member of the company, Waller’s performance is charming yet haunting, and she plays the most compelling and interesting character in the production. While each scene and vignette brings forth its own important piece of the puzzle, Tallen Waller’s scenes brings forth additional tension and charm.
A wonderful performance by a young talent, Talen Waller may become one of my new favorite local performers.
Although Ravenscroft is very different from the usual Theatre Guild fare, director David Morris brilliantly brings out the subtle humour in the script, making the play a send-up of a gothic mystery instead of a straight drama. Filled with funny lines and inspired moments of comedy, the production is more good-natured humour than murder and mayhem.
However, this doesn’t take away from the mystery. With an extremely complex plot, the drama keeps the audience guessing to the very end. Nothing is quite as it seems at Ravenscroft manor.
Ravenscroft is a great opener to what is guaranteed to be an interesting season at the Theatre Guild. The play runs until October 3rd at the Peterborough Theatre Guild ( 364 Rogers St., Peterborough). Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, and $10 for students, and can be ordered by calling the box office at 705-745-4211 or online at www.theatreguild.org.
Photos of the actors by Theresa James.
