Bigger than life characters of cartoon-like proportions take to the stage during Jonathan Rand's comedy mystery Murder in the Knife Room.
Prince George secondary school's acting and directing class 11/12 will take on this challenge as a student-directed production that looks like corn popping, said Devin Potskin, a Grade 11 student who plays The Inspector. The play takes place at Vanier Hall from Dec. 6 to 10.
"Every five seconds or so I'm crossing the stage, interrogating different characters, trying to find out who murdered the Mysterious Host," said Potskin. "There's a lot of action and it's all over the place."
The Inspector, who drives the plot forward, tries to solve the crime by asking important questions of characters like the Wealthy Dowager, the Respected General, the Mall Santa and the Real Santa Claus, Pompous Millionaire and Boy Band Reject.
Randy Roy, who plays the Reject, said the play sees the characters trying not to reveal too much information.
"The characters are outrageous and everyone has their own secret they're trying to protect," said Roy, Grade 12 student, about the 27 cast members.
The play is student directed with Kevin O'Brien, theatre teacher, supervising while also taking on the set building. "There's going to be 720 knives in the Knife Room and that's a lot of knives to make."
Taking on the directing and acting in the play helps round out the students' overall experience, said Roy.
"I have acted since Grade 8 and then got technical experience for lighting and sound when I helped out with the senior productions," Roy explained. "It really opened a lot of doors for me. Now if a band needs a guy to do the tech stuff for them I can," Roy explained. "When you have to direct your peers, it gives you another perspective than if you only acted in a play. It's a phenomenal experience to do it all during a production."
Murder in the Knife Room showa at Vanier Hall at 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and 12:30 on Friday. Tickets are $10 at the door.
