Murder Inn
Review by Ernest Goes To The Theatre/Ernest Edwards
Make a reservation and check yourself in to the Murder Inn.
It’s a play by Howard Voland and Keith McGregor. This production is at the Plymouth Playhouse and is produced by 4 Community Theatre.
It’s November. And there’s a flash flood happening. The Ghost and Ghouls Tour of New England find themselves in need of last minute lodging. Only the Barnsley Inn is available. The Barnsley Inn is normally closed in November, because the local ghost, Marco, haunts the Inn in November. For November is when he discovered his wife cheating on him over 200 years ago. Marco died at this location. No one is to use room #3. That is Marco’s room. Marco likes to throw knives. The Inn Keeper (Martha Talbot) and her son (Jake Talbot) are always hiding the knives from Marco. Now comes a bus load of guests that are unwelcome by the Inn Keeper, but they truly have no place to else to go as the roads are now flooded and they are trapped. Trapped at a creaky old Inn, with a knife throwing ghost and with each other. What could go wrong?
The group of tourists consist of Agnes Tate (who is so demanding that she makes Alexis Carrington Colby from Dynasty look like a nun), her niece Carolyn Pickett, Ellen Halsey is the tour guide, Donald Schultz is the bus driver, Muriel Lampmann is the free spirit (armed with pink hair, sensitivity to auras, and wielder of a Ouija board), Patricia Simpson seems like she is kept together (what secrets is she hiding), Lawrence Currier a college professor working in a new book, his son Todd Currier, and the best friend duo of Grace Sharp and Doris Brooks.
Act one ends with the discovery of the death of Patricia. Dun, dun, dunnnnnnn! As the power goes out, due to the storm, and the phone lines go out. (Also no cell service. That’s truly frightful) With the roads flooded, the police are not coming. It’s up to the back up generator and the guests to figure out who or what killed Patricia. Since she had a knife wound it would be obvious to say that Marco the ghost killed her. As the guests try to unravel the mystery Agnes Tate is the next victim. Lawrence suggests a different approach to this mystery. As he goes to his room to sleep on these events. After he exists the stage, there’s gun fire and Lawrence is now dead. Now the body count is up to three. Two by knife and one by gun fire. Who is the killer? That I will not reveal in this review. What I will say, is in good old fashioned murder mystery style. All is revealed by the end.
This is a fun and frightful tale for spooky season. The cast is fun. The story is engaging. Book yourself a ticket for a spooktacular good time at the Murder Inn. Play runs through November 2, 2025. Check out 4communitytheatre.org for tickets.
