Eccentric millionaire Albert Doornale has invited all of his close friends to his estate; including his ex-wife Abigail, daughter Priscilla, niece Edwina, mistress Candace Bambay and childhood friend Salvatore Carbone. Everyone arrives at the estate to be greeted by the spooky butler and knife-carrying cook. But he is nowhere to be seen. Later that evening, a large amount of blood is found in the upstairs bathroom. Was Albert killed and carried away?
In the nick of time, Inspector Bukowski arrives. Bukowski is eager for a big case to fall in his lap. He has not had a big case yet. Or even a “medium” case. He has read about big cases. He is quite sure he could handle a big case if he had one. Will this be “the one”?
This is the fun – though rather macabre – premise of Lee Mueller’s Death of a Doornail, which is being presented by the MADC to celebrate Halloween.
A few months ago, I was asked to co-direct this play with fellow actress Pia Zammit and must admit I was very happy as “crime” happens to be one of my favourite genres. We were lucky to land ourselves with a fantastic cast of actors.
Katherine Brown, who plays Albert’s snotty ex-wife Abigail says she loves the play’s plot twists and slapstick, funny characters and witty dialogue, the obvious and the unexpected.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of murder and mayhem – of the literary variety, of course – so I was very excited when I heard that MADC was going to finally do a play that explored my favourite genre.
When I went to the auditions and realised that it was going to be a comedy as well, I was close to ecstatic.
“Now that I’ve been cast and we’re working on it, I can see what a great piece of entertainment it is going to be and I couldn’t be happier if I tried! Now, just ignore the knife behind my back, it’s nothing, really...” she laughs wickedly.
Jo Caruana plays the bubbly but thick Candace Bambay, the mistress of Albert Doornail:
“The show is a fantastic blend of comedy and whodunnit so audiences can look forward to plenty of laughs and some unusual twists. And what better than a good old whodunnit on Halloween? It’s nice to be part of a good, fun production that is literally just out to entertain,” she smiles.
Kate De Cesare, who plays the part of sinister housekeeper Mrs Morganford says that she is “dead excited” to be taking part in this play: “It’s a seemingly traditional murder mystery, with all the expected ‘suspects’ but with hilarious twists, lots of blood and plenty of laughs! It’s also got a great cast with loads of energy.”
Death of a Doornail is an interactive show with plenty of “surprises” on and off stage. In fact, the audience members are being encouraged to attend the play in costume – either dressed elegantly as upper-crust gentry or as blood-stained murderers or in any other spooky costume they may like to wear... after all, it is Halloween!
The rest of the cast of this macabre but hilarious play is made up of Alexandra Camilleri Warne, Daphne Ann Grech, Colin Fitz, Joe Pace, John Fenech, Krista Paris, Jane Pillow, Nathan Brimmer and Philip Leone Ganado.
• Death of a Doornail is being staged at the Manoel Theatre on October 30- 31 at 8 p.m. Tickets may be obtained by phone on 2124 6389 or online: www.teatrumanoel.com.mt. More information may be obtained from www.madc.biz.