Upper Schoolers. In the theater. With a script.

This November, Upper School students delighted audiences with a beloved mystery, performing the play Clue in the Caplin Theater. Inspired by the classic Hasbro board game and based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie, Clue begins at a remote mansion, as six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party—where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host, the cryptic Mr. Boddy, turns up dead, all the dinner guests become suspects. Led by Wadsworth (the butler), the guests—Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, and Colonel Mustard—race to find the killer as the body count stacks up.

“It’s iconic,” says Sentell Harper, the Upper School theater arts teacher. “The board game and the movie have become a part of our culture. I always loved the movie because of the amazing actors who brought the board game to life in a comedic way.” Comic luminaries like Madeline Kahn, Tim Curry, Michael McKean, Christopher Lloyd, and Lesley Ann Warren starred in the original film, which was both a success in the 1980s and a cult classic ever since. “I love directing comedies because they bring me joy,” says Harper. “The students have so much fun doing silly things. Also, comedies allow young actors to play around in a different way than they may do on a sports team. When I watch the actors in this show, they lose inhibitions, and they don’t compete with each other. It’s just fun, and that is the goal I want for all the shows.” 

The play was also popular among the students, who came out in such force for auditions that it “was easy to double cast the eight leading roles to give everyone an opportunity,” says Harper. “Plus, with the production opening right around flu and cold season, having two casts meant having an understudy ready to jump in just in case a cast member got sick.” As a result, the double casts rotated performances, something Wadsworth would no doubt find suspicious: “The double negative has led to proof-positive!”