REVIEW: A twisty, twisted 'Murder' taking place at BCT

By DAVID EMANUEL

Staff Writer

Murder mysteries are often tough to do, since you think you’ve seen it all, or they become cliche, and while Bowie Community Theatre’s latest, Edward Taylor’s "Murder by Misadventure," certainly does have its share of been there, done that moments, trust me — the final moment will just kill you.

I guarantee you it’s a wallop of a twist you won’t see coming.

The entire show is worth it just for that.

There are plenty of twists and turns right up until the end (you’ll figure out at least half of them), but the ending is something that would do the grand master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock proud.

Directed by Jack Degnan, the entire show takes place in "Howard and Emma Kent’s flat high above the Sussex coast in England." (Great set design, by the way, thanks to a fantastic team of folks — check your program because there are too many to mention.)

There are only four characters in the play: The Kents, played by Jerry Gietka and Lesley Miller; Paul Riggs, played by James McDaniel, and George Tamerlani as Inspector Egan.

All four actors bring a special "something up their sleeve" persona to the stage, and the scenes between Howard and his writing partner Paul become more and more intense, and dare I say, darkly comic, as the play progresses.

It’s another one of those shows where the less said, the better, so as not to spoil the surprises that come along the way.

I won’t even mention the "murder" that almost takes place in the first minute of the show. No spoiler there, I tell you!

In the words of the director, this show was not a typical mystery, with a large cast and scads of potential suspects.

"My sharp mathematical mind immediately concluded that, assuming one of the remaining three characters was the victim, the audience had a 50/50 chance of guessing the murderer even before the curtain rose on the first act. What kind of lame mystery is that? Well, my dear audience, I couldn’t have been more wrong."

Dare I say it?

OK, I will — it’s an ending to die for.

For ticket information, see Lively Arts listing.