If you enjoy sniffing out clues and sussing out fine details like a modern true-crime detective, you can turn your love of solving a whodunit to the comedic side with The Game’s Afoot, a Sherlock Holmes-inspired murder-comedy now playing at Santa Maria Civic Theatre.
Combining the theatrical crafts of slapstick comedy with the melodramatic interpretation of classic crime-solving characters allows for a novel take on the traditional murder-mystery. In The Game’s Afoot, written by Ken Ludwig, our sleuths have been reimagined as a hilarious duo awkwardly finding their way to the truth.
In a world full of TV crime dramas, this production refreshes the palette with a healthy dose of humor.
As the show starts, the setting is 1930s Broadway. Famed actor William Gillette (played by Darin Gabler) stars in his self-written Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson mystery. It has become a huge success on the Great White Way.
As the play ends, while the actors are taking their bows, shots ring out and, shockingly, Gillette takes a bullet to the arm on stage.
Weeks later, as the police have poor luck finding the shooter, Gillette and his best friend Felix Geisel (played by Daniel Mariscal) begin their own sleuthing to get to the heart of the shooting. Ironically, Geisel plays Moriarty, Sherlock’s nemesis, in Gillette’s Broadway production.
They attend a dinner party at Gillette’s Connecticut castle. Dinner guests include the other Broadway cast members (played by Krystal Kirk, Logan Goodnature, and Kennedy Martin), Gillette’s well-to-do and well-dressed eccentric elderly mother (played by Deborah Schwartz), a Scotland Yard-type inspector Goring (played by Sally Buchanan), and an infamous Broadway theatre critic, terse columnist, and long-time psychic, the seductive Daria Chase (played by Aiyani Mersai).
This is a funny, intriguing romp through the exacting process of finding a killer and a motive, all the while using various comedic mechanics, hilariously executed by a stellar ensemble cast.”
All hell breaks loose when one of the guests turns up dead at the castle and inconvenient truths come out about each character. No one is completely without guilt and all have their own secrets. Scene stealers in this show include Buchanan, stunningly clad in plaid, immersed in her character completely, and with an accent consistently on point, and a gregarious Mersai, sending the humor over the top playing the reviewer/columnist/psychic with proper upper-class dialect and high dramatics.
SMCT seems to be blessed with seamless set designers, as the set of this production, courtesy of director Lynda Mondragon, is remarkable. The castle’s great room doubles as the Broadway play’s set, complete with a secret entrance behind a moving wall. Quite impressive! The costumes also are noteworthy: beautiful and totally era-appropriate.
This is a funny, intriguing romp through the exacting process of finding a killer and a motive, all the while using various comedic mechanics, hilariously executed by a stellar ensemble cast. The timing truly is everything. The Game’s Afoot is definitely a must-see show if you like to laugh.
Go see a show!
Editor’s Note: The Game’s Afoot plays March 7-23, 2025, at Santa Maria Civic Theatre.