Production features impressive technical design but some uneven performances.

Ken Ludwig has written two of the funniest plays I’ve ever seen – Lend Me A Tenor and Leading Ladies. Both were farces played broadly and with breakneck speed. His 2012 play The Game’s Afoot is a comedy-mystery that would, on paper, seem tailor-made for broad humor and shocking reveals. But in StageDoorTheatre’s uneven production, the mystery at the heart of the play is uninteresting and the comedy is intermittent.

Despite its title, The Game’s Afoot is not a Sherlock Holmes parody. Rather, it is inspired by actual author/actor/inventor William Gillette who wrote and starred as Sherlock Holmes for decades — even creating some of the most well-known motifs such as Holmes’ pipe and an early version of “elementary my dear Watson.” Gillette became very wealthy and built “Gillette’s Castle” in Connecticut, where most of the play is set.

The play starts on closing night of the latest run of Sherlock Holmes in New York City when, during the curtain call, Gillette (Ken Zinn) is shot in the shoulder by person unknown. Two weeks later, the cast reunites at Gillette’s house for a Christmas Eve get-together along with Gillette’s mother, Martha Gillette (Laurie Atkinson) and a “surprise” appearance by theatre critic Daria Chase (Staci York). The other attendees include married couple Felix Geisel (Brian Dowling) and Madge Geisel (Jill Dalton) and newly married couple Aggie Wheeler (Brianna Angle) and Simon Bright (Rene Meyer).  They learn that the stage manager from Sherlock Holmes has been killed the day before.  And on this dark, snowy, stormy night, one guest is killed and Inspector Gohring (Gretchen Samuels) arrives to try to solve the murders. Everyone’s a suspect and is anyone innocent? More I cannot say as the audience is sworn to secrecy before the show begins.

Tracy Doty Photography

Tight direction but uneven cast

The Game’s Afoot plays more to the comedy than to the mystery. The mystery actually is pretty standard and the whodunit doesn’t really matter. As performed, the reveals are neither tense nor surprising.

Although the show didn’t work for me, it’s not for lack of trying. Jill Manser expertly staged and blocked the action for maximum effect. Most of the timing of exits and entrances necessary to the mystery and humor were well thought out.  Manser gave her cast every opportunity to nail the comedy. Too often for me, though, the cast’s timing was just a beat slow or off, which reduced the impact of Manser’s direction.

Some of the cast delivers. Ken Zinn shines as William Gillette. He understands and demonstrates that his character sees himself as a controlling, larger-than-life person. Zinn brings out every ounce of hubris, ego and bemusement in Gillette. When Gillette dons his Sherlock Holmes costume to try to solve the murders, the audience laughs with recognition through the transformation.

Zinn’s literal verbal duels with Dowling are a pure delight. Their characters are experienced actors, and Zinn and Dowling’s own acting experience allows them to play with their recitations from other works — principally Shakespeare, which happens often and are always entertaining. The two play as long-standing partners in sync whether verbally or silently, and never more so than when they humorously are trying to hide a body in Act Two. Jill Dalton perfectly embodies the melodramatic Madge as she plays it loud and large and has the best eye-catching costume. Staci York is an over-the-top and delightfully evil theatre critic (are there any other kinds?) and answers the physical challenges of Act Two with aplomb.

However, the rest of the small cast, Laurie Atkinson as Martha Gillette, Rene Meyer as Simon Bright and Brianna Angle as Aggie Wheeler never capture the spirit of the play. Their dialog often didn’t feel natural or truthful to the characters, but simply as a line that had to be said in a certain specified way, and so was not part of the moment.  Even some of their physical movements and mugging came off as planned, scripted or forced. Their scenes often moved slowly, lessening the humor and even the mystery. In a play that depends on verbal and physical timing, they just were off. Atkinson was much better in Act Two although, even then, she could have gotten more laughs if she had leaned more into the outrageousness of her character.

For some reason, Samuels plays Inspector Gohring with a British accent even though the character is a Connecticut police officer (or is she?). Her portrayal rarely moves away from a standard caricature of inspectors in An Inspector Calls and The Mousetrap, which misses out on potential laughs.

Impressive technical elements

I love slapstick farce. The intricate and exquisite set designed by Dean Arniotes and Biz Schaugaard and dressed with proper props by Robin Booth, promised to deliver a la Noises Off, What The Butler Saw and Lend Me A Tenor. Yet, the set does not get used for laughs as often as it could have as the actors needed to be quicker through the multiple doors, exits and entrances. There is a semi-complicated piece of scenery which follows Chekhov’s Gun Law, but it had some working issues the night I saw the show. The humor of those moments will no doubt increase when the technical and timing issues are resolved.

There was complex choreography of lights (designed by Tom Junker), sounds (designed by Logan Rafdal and Liv Havery-Clark) and projections that complemented and were necessary to the plot which the StageDoor board operators (Casper Harvey-Clark, Liv Harvey-Clark and Jon Weeks) executed flawlessly. Jennifer Middleton’s costumes were appropriate for the characters, playing to the stereotypes needed for some of the humor.

The Game’s Afoot has its moments of hilarity, although fans of Sherlock Holmes may be disappointed by the mystery. If the cast tightens the timing so that the production has that madcap free-wheeling feeling, this could be an excellent night at the theatre.