On Wednesday night I trekked from North Quad to the performing arts center in order to watch Notre Dame’s production of “The Game’s Afoot” directed by Carolyn Dell, and I'll tell you now, it was worth the hike.
The play follows a group of actors gathered at the home of the famous stage star, William Gillette (William Rosemurgy), who is best known for playing Sherlock Holmes. When one of the guests is mysteriously murdered during the weekend gathering, Gillette, inspired by his role as Holmes, takes it upon himself to solve the crime. Let me frame this review with a word of humble caution. I haven’t reviewed any plays or have gone to many prior to making this review and so I don’t really have many reference points compared to overs of the genre. I can only give my (enthusiastic) reaction.
It seemed like the director could take the play in two directions. The play could be directed as a mystery with comedic bits sprinkled in or as a comedy with the plot taking a secondary role. This production of “The Game’s Afoot” went the latter route and did so superbly.
The production was hilarious, with high energy through its entirety and constantly moving. There were truly zero wasted seconds. The one criticism that I had as a result of the density of content is the fact that I found it difficult to have any genuine “Ah-Ha!” reaction to the sudden revelations about the mystery as the actors ran through the conclusions quickly without much room for the audience to emote or process. The motives of Simon Bright (Robert Fuller) and Aggie Wheeler (Josy Pitaro) seemed more as a hoop to jump through rather than an important plot point.
While the pacing was fast, by no means was this a show lacking painstaking dedication and preparation. A particular scene that illustrated this was when Darie Chase had a knife in her back. Without going into too much detail, the 20 seconds of perfectly timed choreography aligned with clear line recitation from Gillette I found truly impressive.
The performances that stood out to me were: William Rosemurgy’s William Gillette, Grace Osoteo’s Martha Gillette, Eli Gay’s Felix Geisel and Evelyn Berry’s Daria Chase. William Rosemurgy exuded the eccentricities of William Gillette and provided a really fine center for the other characters to work around. Grace Osoteo made Martha Gillete incredibly funny with her mannerisms and line executions. Eli Gay’s Felix Geisel had wonderful chemistry with every character but he and Emse Wickles’ Madge Geisel were an especially vibrant comedic duo. Lastly, Darie Chase’s performance was especially impressive. She was entertaining alive, but I thought her role as a corpse gave a holistic view of her ability. Her motionlessness for a long period of time while being pushed and carried by Gillette and Felix was certainly harder than it looked.
Aside from the performances I thought the set design was also particularly immersive and well executed. The stairs and doors to nowhere, the wall of weapons and the soothing color of the walls. I thought it was all visually captivating.
Overall I highly recommend that you go see “The Game’s Afoot”. Future productions will be on Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
