Student play is comedy of mystery, errors

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Lake Middle School will find itself in the middle of a murder mystery on Nov. 15 when its fall play, “Poetic License to Kill,” opens.

The play will run at 7 p.m. Nov. 15-17 at the school.

“It’s one of those shows that is really dense,” said director Tami Provencher. “It’s actually a parody of an Agatha Christie murder mystery with a little bit of a parody of reality television thrown in.”

“Poetic License to Kill” consists of two distinct storylines.

The first consists of two guests staying at a bed and breakfast, who are out to scam many of the other guests.

In the midst of the scamming, a number of other plotlines are uncovered including a love story, two men who are vying to be the apprentice of a wealthy businessman and an out-of-work actress.

The second part of the show includes murder attempts on a poet and attempts to solve the mystery.

However, the truth of the murder attempts is revealed at the end of the show.

“It’s a comedy of errors,” Provencher said. “It sounds like it would be violent but there really is no violence in it.”

Provencher said she decided on “Poetic License to Kill” as this year’s show because it was something different.

“We did the Shakespeare (parody), ‘Wizard of Oz’ parody and we did the fairytale parody,” she said, “so, I wanted to do something completely different which is why we went murder-mystery.”

Eighth grader Bella Delcastillo, who is playing one of the bed and breakfast guests, said she has enjoyed the show because of how funny it is.

“I’ve been here three years and this is the best one we’ve done,” she said. “The other ones have been trying to be funny too much and this one is genuinely funny.

“I always thought the other shows needed something else and this one has it.”

When Provencher first gave students the script to read, she said they were utterly confused by the show because there were so many things happening.

“It was really a challenge for the kids reading the script because they didn’t get it when they read the script,” she said. “There’s so much physical comedy in it, so some of the plot is told through what they’re doing – if you just read the words, it doesn’t make any sense.

“Now that we’re starting to put it together, there’s light bulbs going off.”

Since the show includes so much slapstick comedy, Provencher said she spent considerable time teaching her actors some of the basic skills of slapstick, including how to faint on stage.

The biggest challenge for students, Provencher said, has been learning what to be doing on stage when they don’t have any lines since the physical comedy still tells the story.

“This has been one of the most enjoyable rehearsal processes I’ve gone through because there’s so much farce,” she said. “The same that makes it so joyous are the things that are really challenging.”

Provencher said “Poetic License to Kill” will be enjoyable for both children and adults.

“The kids are going to be all about that physical stuff – there’s accents, silliness, one-liners, fainting, tripping,” she said. “The adults are going to enjoy that it is so dense, that it is so layered.

“You will see more every night you come to the show and to me that’s one of the most exciting things about the show.”

“Poetic License to Kill” will run Nov. 15-17 at 7 p.m. at the school. Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for students.

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