A beautiful amnesiac walks into an opera box. Later, the body of a murdered man is found in the park.
Is there a link? You’ll have to see Central Alberta Theatre’s production of Evelyn Strange to find out.
The murder mystery by Edmonton playwright Stewart Lemoine opens on March 11, as a dinner theatre at the Quality Inn North Hill.
Despite its Alberta origins, the play is set in New York City in 1955, so there are film noir-ish overtones to the script. “But I’m not asking the actors to be melodramatic,” said director Tara Rorke, who believes there are enough twists and turns in the plot to give the play its pot-boiler vibe.
Evelyn Strange is what a mysterious stranger calls herself after wandering into the Grand Tier at the Metropolitan Opera House.
The striking woman meets Perry Spengler in the opera box and confesses she has no idea who she is. Since she found two tickets in the pocket of the coat she was wearing, she came to the production of Wagner’s Siegfried to try to re-start her memory.
Perry, a bookish sub-editor at the New York publishing house, is intrigued by Evelyn, who appears lost and confused. He offers to help her piece together the mystery of her identity.
The plot thickens as other characters are introduced.
Perry’s companion at the opera is his boss’s wife, Nina Ferrer. Perry was asked to meet Nina at the opera when his boss can’t make the evening performance.
“Nina crawled her way out of the steno pool” and now loves the perks and privileges of wealth, said Rorke.
Also working at Ferrer and Sons Printing is sub-editor Lewis Hake. Unlike Perry, the out-going, charismatic Lewis has the reputation for being a ladies’ man.
While there are funny moments in this dark comedy, the beauty of Lemoine’s script is that just when viewers think they know what’s coming, the action veers off in surprising directions, she added. “Some of the characters are not who they appear to be …”
Suffice it to say, a murder takes place and some of the evidence points to Evelyn.
But Rorke said she can’t say anything else without giving too much away. “The mystery is what happened to Evelyn to make her lose her memory …”
The director has been working on establishing believable 1950s behavior with her four-person cast, including Nicole Leal as Evelyn and Paul Sutherland as Perry.
A good primer for the formal reserve that existed between men and women of the period can be seen in early episodes of the TV show Mad Men, said Rorke.
“You couldn’t just casually put your hand on someone’s shoulder … All the men wear hats and all the women are wearing white gloves …”
Rorke predicted audience members will have fun trying to figure out the characters’ motives — and if what’s being said is really what’s meant.
Described as “a story of operatic proportions, rife with deceit and betrayal,” Evelyn Strange should provide an entertaining evening of theatre, she added.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. shows on March 11-13, 18-20, April 1,2, and 8 and 9 are $65 from the Black Knight Ticket Centre (Meals are served from 6 p.m.) Sunday brunches start at noon, with the show at 1:30 p.m.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com