Clue

Saturday, November 2nd Frank and I went  to see the stage play Clue at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.

Clue  (the play) is loosely based on Clue (the classic Parker Brothers board game). The guests at a dinner party in a Victorian-type mansion were given the pseudonyms Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Mr. Green, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Peacock. They are shown in the following photo with their designated weapons for murder: a gun, a wrench, a lead pipe, a candlestick, a rope, and a dagger. Other characters in the play were Wadsworth, the butler, Yvette, the maid, and Mr. Boddy, the mysteriously absent host.

While waiting for the performance to start, we viewed this stage image of a gothic haunted house. Photography was not allowed, so this is my only photo from the performance.

The play was 90 minutes with no intermission. The staging for the various rooms in the mansion was cleverly done. I remembered the hall, the study, the billiard room, the dining room, the kitchen, and the library. The way the murdered bodies (yes, there was more than one corpse) were concealed and transported was indeed funny. Clue relied very heavily on physical humor and the actors did a great job with their antics. Frank and I could not always understand the dialogue but we got the majority of the exchanges; we caught most of the verbal jokes and all of the physical jokes. We were seated close, in Row 12 but our seats were a bit offset from center and that position may have contributed to our straining to catch all the nuances of the conversations. We were able to enjoy and laugh at the sound effects, though. Frank and I relaxed during our low-key and fun outing that afternoon at Clue.