As the lights dim and the audience falls silent, bright spotlights illuminate the scene onstage: the lobby of the King Solomon Hotel. A dictatorial old woman, her face half-hidden in a wide-brimmed hat, sits at the head of the table. Her children sit at the table, all facing her. The play, “An Appointment with Death”, revolves around this women, her murder, and her murderer. It debuted on March 16 and ran through March 20.
After the fall’s lighter “Seussical” performance, “An Appointment with Death” carries a darker, more serious tone. “I always wanted to do a murder mystery,” says the play’s director and Aragon’s drama teacher, Shane Smuin.
People who saw the play also found the mystery aspect intriguing. “The best part was trying to figure out who it was,” says Junior Edison Brooks, “I thought that was fun.”
“An Appointment with Death” is based on a book of the same name by Agatha Christie, an well-known writer of detective novels.
“Agatha Christie is the best,” says Smuin. “I’ve read lots of her books, seen lots of her movies, and seen a few of her plays. She’s great.”
Although the book and play are related, there are still lots of differences between them. “I haven’t read the book, but it wouldn’t really help because the play departs a lot from the book,” says sophomore Granger Brenneman.
Sophomore Aech Loar agrees, “The killer is different in the play than in the book.”
Some roles in the play required different kinds of accents. “Playing a French character, I began to study the French accent as soon as I saw that I had gotten the role,” says sophomore Keegan Huth, “Months in advance, I began listening to French Pop, a soothing and ethereal genre of music. Some time into production, Mr. Smuin introduced me to “Inspector Clouseau” from the Pink Panther series, which was very helpful in developing the humorous aspects of the French accent.”
“It felt kind of awkward to be talking in an accent that wasn’t American,” says senior Marly Miller, who played the young British doctor Sarah King, “I was told to watch some movies of people with British accents.”
The cast has run into a few problems. “A lot of the lines that we have are really similar, so a lot of people say their lines in the wrong order, which confuses their stage partners. But it [seems like] we’re not off book, because we know all of our lines individually,” says Loar. “We just haven’t had as much time as we did last year, because there are three acts instead of five. That was probably an issue.”
Audience reception was positive, especially towards the cast and the actors. “[The cast is] very talented,” says senior Miranda Morse.
“It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be,” says Brooks. “I really liked the actors. I don’t know who [performed as] the French guy, but he was really good.” He still was slightly bothered by some aspects of the play. “I wasn’t a fan of the ending. I didn’t like the ending very much,” says Brooks. “It’s more a plot problem than anything.”
Alternatively, some people were intrigued by the end. “I liked the end…it was a plot twist,” says sophomore Gabriel Navarro. “I wasn’t really expecting [the end]. The play kind of made everyone look guilty. Everybody had a motive.”
