Our drama department’s long-awaited and highly-anticipated production of “Clue” opened on January 12, with another four shows spanning throughout the following weekend. Despite its delay, the show exceeded expectations and overall garnered a positive audience response.

On a dark and stormy night, six guests are invited to the Boddy Manor for a dinner party. Only instead of having a nice, soupy dinner, they are met with blackmail, secrets, murder, and a dish best served cold, revenge.

Mr. Boddy, the owner of the mansion, gives each of the guests (who are given aliases to assume) a weapon and tells them to kill the butler, Wadsworth. If they do, he promises to destroy all the evidence used against them, and not let their malicious secrets out to the public that could potentially destroy them all.

The lights go out, and a gunshot is heard. Mr. Boddy himself is dead on the floor.

With the police on their way and a murderer on the loose, the play follows Wadsworth and the six guests as they run around in circles trying to figure out who dunnit, how to destroy evidence of their secrets, and how to stay hidden from the police all in the span of this one sinister night.

From the intense scenes to the crowd’s amazed reactions, the actors em-bodied the characters very well. It truly felt like they popped out straight from the game and came to the stage. The mannerisms, costumes, along with great acting made for not only interesting characters, but also an immersive story. The audience was at the edge of their seats, gasping and laughing throughout the whole show.

The interactions between the characters were fun and amusing to watch, seeing how connected the cast was. The actors had great chemistry with each other, and you could tell each of the members were close and had fun performing the show, making it even better to watch. You could really tell the cast was having fun acting in scenes where they would quarrel then reverse to another scene and replay the event in a different perspective. Despite the fact that they were accusing each other of murder, it was something they laughed about and had fun rehearsing, which showed up on stage.

As for costumes, each of the characters wore outfits that matched their personalities perfectly. Ms. White, contrary to her name, wore an all-black dress and veil, matching her story of the recent death of her husband. Ms. Scarlet wore a green velvet dress, heels, and held a cigarette holder, much like her outfit in the 1985 movie, accentuating her sultry and flirty personality. Wadsworth, the butler, wore an outfit that was very akin to that of a classic early 20th century butler.

Costumes aren’t the only way to show off a character’s personality, and that’s where mannerisms come into play. The cast hit the nail with their mannerisms, they really told a story about who these characters were. For example, Mrs. Peacock put her hands together in a praying motion whenever she disapproved of something, showing how heavily religious she is. She is a very sociable person, almost unbearably so, as seen in the dinner scene where she begins asking everyone about themselves after a long, awkward dinner full of slurping soup.

The tech crew deserves some love too; their hard work really paid off! The sets looked great, as did the lighting and sound effects. The light changes and sound effects made the show feel more dramatic, like in the scene where the weapons were held out and highlighted by the spotlight. And the sound effects were surprisingly realistic, the timing on them was great and it made it feel like there was a storm rumbling outside. The running crew wearing costumes and being a part of the show was a really nice touch, especially since there were no blackouts. The costumes also made them feel a part of the world of Clue, instead of just VNHS’ tech crew going on stage and changing the set for the show.

Final Verdict: 9/10