For two years, Emporia High School has centered its theater season on big plays. Plays like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or “Suessical” that require a small army of actors and a larger army of support staff.
Not this time. Tonight, EHS enjoys the small life with an Agatha Christie classic, “The Mousetrap.” Just eight actors. Just one set. No flying elephants or whimsical fairies required.
And yes, that is a sigh of relief coming from director Amanda Vannocker.
“We’ve done such big, huge things that I wanted to tone it down a bit,” she said.
But that wasn’t the only selling point for her.
“I think it was probably the distinct cast of characters,” Vannocker said. “They have very distinct personalities and I have a very strong senior class that slid in right where I needed them.”
“The Mousetrap” is the longest-running play in English history, with the London production clocking over 20,000 performances. It takes place in the great hall of Monkswell Manor, home of Giles and Mollie Ralston, who have invited several friends to visit, only to discover that one of them is a murderer.
For an American high-school cast, meanwhile, dealing with murder and mayhem has been far easier than dealing with the classic British turns of phrase. Sentences like “We came in a party” have quite different meanings on this side of the Atlantic and even a word like “amenities” tangled a few tongues in early rehearsals.
“Even though we didn’t go for English accents, some of the lines were not things they would normally say,” Vannocker said. “But they’ve done a good job of keeping everything in order.”
A good thing, too. Everything has to fit just so in a murder mystery, never mind an Agatha Christie one with all its twists and turns.
“The show could go a hundred different ways,” Vannocker said. “At different points, you think the story’s definitely going this way and then in the next five seconds, it’s going the other way.”
The cast itself is a paradoxical mix of veteran and newcomer. Despite the large number of seniors, most of the actors are getting their first taste of what center stage is like. Take Jennifer Newell, who plays Mollie Ralston and has mostly been a stage manager in past productions. Or maybe S’Kylan Russell, the actor playing Mollie’s husband Giles, who has never held a leading role before.
Some of the biggest challenges for the cast have come from off-stage commitments. Tyler Michaels, who plays Detective Sergeant Trotter, joined rehearsals late because of sports commitments and found he had about half the lines in the show.
“He swallowed rather hard when he came back from football practice after we had been in rehearsal for three weeks,” Vannocker said. “But he has risen to the occasion.”
So has everyone. In fact, the cast fit so seamlessly into their roles that a couple of actors began teasing Vannocker about typecasting.
“I said ‘Sure did! Makes my job a lot easier!’” Vannocker said with a broad grin.
“The Mousetrap” runs tonight and tomorrow at the Emporia High School auditorium. The doors open at 6 p.m. with the show starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 and may be bought at the door or reserved by calling 341-2365.
In addition, audience members may purchase flowers before the show or at intermission for a cast or crew member. Flowers are $2