Theater review: “The Game’s Afoot” at Blackfriars

On paper, “The Game’s Afoot,” a comedy by Ken Ludwig, has all
the trappings of an enjoyable play — a lighthearted parody of the murder
mystery genre in a Christmas setting. On stage, in a Blackfriars
Theatre production directed by Kerry Young, the reality is disappointing.

With the
alternative title of “Holmes for the Holidays,” the play focuses on the quirky
actor and playwright William Gillette, who has made a name for himself
portraying Sherlock Holmes on the stage. After a failed attempt on his life
during a New York City performance, Gillette — played by John Forrest Thompson
— retreats to his swanky Connecticut home to recuperate. His recent misfortune
does not prevent him from inviting his fellow cast members over for a small
Christmas Eve party, however.

Years of
playing the iconic detective has blurred the line between fact and fiction for
Gillette, and fancying himself a real-life Holmes, he enlists his guests in
helping him solve the crime. But things take a grisly turn when one guest, the
theater critic Daria Chase (a pitch-perfect Jillian Severin),
is found with a knife embedded in her back, and a real detective (Abby DeVuyst) arrives on the scene.

Those
looking to take in a Christmas play should go elsewhere. The fact that the
setting is a holiday party is a superficial detail, a pretense for all the
characters to be assembled in one place, and nothing more.

In order to
be entertaining satire, tongue-in-cheek self-awareness is a must. And with
regard to the acting profession, Ludwig’s script contains a hearty dose of
knowing self-deprecation.

The problem
is that the cast’s intentionally hammy acting is so stylized and overwrought
that it became stilted and irritating. The characters’ every breath is meant to
be bravado and artifice (no one is exactly what he or she seems), and yet a
more natural delivery would have made the colorful characters more engaging and
endearing, rather than just thespian caricatures.

Only Severin’s depiction of the haughty, condescending, and
manipulative Daria resonated with the right tone and provided the proper
dramatic motivation for her demise. In this case, the over-the-top approach to
Daria was justified to match her extreme unlikeability
as a character. The other characters were simply not relatable, from the
emotionally unfaithful Aggie Wheeler (played by Kate Osher)
and her milquetoast husband Simon Bright (Colin D. Pazik)
to the self-indulgent Gillette and his showboating best friend Felix Geisel
(Jeff Siuda). There was simply little reason to care
what happened to these characters, and by extension, little reason to care
about discovering the identity of the murderer.

In any
effective play, the actors’ ability to engage the audience so thoroughly that you
forget you are watching a staged performance is paramount, but at no point in
“The Game’s Afoot” does this level of engagement occur. I was, at all times,
painfully aware that it’s just a show. It doesn’t make it easier that the
script calls for actors to play actors. That said, the Blackfriars
cast didn’t have to sell it as hard as they did.

Although
Ludwig’s story is deliberately farcical, in the absence of any feeling of
danger and suspense, the potency of the comedy fell flat. One well-placed jab
at arts criticism aside, the play is inherently unfunny, and therein lies the
show’s most fatal flaw. The story relies much too heavily on visual gimmicks
and physical humor in the absence of authentic wit.

While the
brisk pace of the second act made for a punchier end to the mystery, it was in
no way enough to salvage the play. Instead of trying too hard to be cute, “The
Game’s Afoot” would have benefited from simply being clever.

This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2015.