WILLIAMSVILLE-The Rock River Players (RRP) seem to be making a name as producers of new works at their Williamsville Hall home.
Following May's evening of original one-acts was the August premiere of Patrick Keppel's The Freeing of Mollie Steimer. And starting Friday, Nov. 7, the RRP premieres Michael Nethercott's Midnight in Vermont, a classic whodunnit à la murder-mystery greats such as Agatha Christie.
The first full-length drama by the Guilford-based mystery writer, Midnight in Vermont centers on the untimely death of a rock star - one Virgil Eastman, the former leader of a popular 1970s band, The Midnight Rides.
According to a RRP news release, "The story begins with a present-day séance interrupted by an unexpected spirit, which incites a narrative shift back to 1983. The aunt of the recently deceased has gathered his former bandmates and associates in her Vermont manor, determined to address her suspicions that her nephew's recent death was no accident.
"The suspects - a varied and unconventional lot - all harbor secrets and motives. As tensions and suspicions mount, they find themselves stuck in the isolated home, their desired departure blocked by an impending [and historically accurate] tornado. Now, with no escape and a killer potentially among them, they must face their past and uncover the truth behind Virgil's death."
The rest is mystery.
Relishing the mystery tropes
Nethercott is no stranger to the supernatural. "I come from a large, extensive Irish family, and I heard lots of ghost stories growing up," he recently told The Commons. "You know, assumedly true ghost stories. So I think that's always been an interest."
He has authored two suspense novels, The Séance Society: A Mystery (2014) and The Haunting Ballad: A Mystery (2014), and many stories published in numerous magazines and anthologies over the years, including Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
Concurrently, he's honed theater skills, directing and performing locally with various groups - Guilford Center Stage and Vermont Theatre Company, among them - and he founded Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center's Forest of Mystery some 35 years ago.
Having written two one-acts presented by the RRP - The Bacchus and The Required Man - and with so many published mystery narratives to his name, he felt compelled to merge the two: to write a murder mystery for the stage.
"I've written plays before and directed them, and I've written mysteries and had them published, but I hadn't brought those two together," said Nethercott, not unlike Christie (1890-1976), a writer of mystery in various genres: "I've read all of Agatha Christie. She's definitely been like a spiritual guide," says Nethercott.
He said he relishes and employs the mystery tropes that the renowned British author developed so well: "numerous suspects, an isolated location, misdirection, red herrings, dark motives, secrets linked to the past, and lots of twists and turns."
Having already worked with the RRP, Nethercott finds the 10-year old theater group's culture a familiar one. The company includes some new faces, some RRP regulars, and some of Nethercott's actor colleagues.
The cast includes Emmadora Boutcher, Peter Broussard, Susan Boyd Joyce, Amy Donahue, James Duffy, Denise Evans, Jess Guerrero, Alex Lacey, Bree Lacey, Helena Leschuk, Ann Linge, Laura Lockie, Aaron Morse, Shey Nessralla, Hunter Savage, Dawn Slade, Addison Rice, Isabella Watkins, and Chris Wehrman.
Twists, turns, and musicality
"What's really fun about this play is that almost all the characters have some sort of secret, and that allows each of us actors to play with what we're presenting and then what we know will come forward later," said Donahue, RRP's artistic director, producer of Midnight in Vermont, and a member of its acting ensemble. "It's given us a lot of meat to chew on in terms of the way we deliver our lines, our physicality."
Donahue has also "had the opportunity to tap back into my dancing roots" to stage a dream sequence as a choreographer. She welcomes the chance to work with RRP actors in this vein and, she added, with the movement and with musical interludes woven in, the audience's attention will be grabbed and diverted repeatedly throughout to conclusion.
Helena Leschuk, operations manager at Brattleboro Community Television, is assistant director for the production. A Marlboro College graduate with a concentration in theater, she said she's "always loved theater" and finally recognized that she'd "love to be involved in a play again."
Of theater in the area today, she said, "I think people really have missed coming together, especially in a creative way, to make something new and exciting and get people out of their homes, get them together, because we really don't want to be cooped up anymore."
Leschuk added that "the importance of theater in our communities, I think, has become even more accented post-pandemic, post-Covid."
As she saw this production on the horizon, Leschuk said, she was drawn to it being an original work.
"I was familiar with Michael and [daughter] Genna Rose Nethercott," Leschuk added. "I know that they have talent, they're a family of writers, and I loved the musical aspect, too, knowing that it was about a rock star and there was going to be music."
The inclusion of contemporary music, she added, seems to be a means of bringing the "murder mystery play into the modern world." And the bond of the band is an added bonus in the narrative for her.
"It's a unique script. Definitely some twists.... And it's very literary, which I really like, too. It's gotten me into a lot of books."
Performances of Midnight in Vermont are Friday and Saturday, Nov. 7 and 8 and Nov. 14 and 15, at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 16, at 2 p.m. at Williamsville Hall, 35 Dover Rd., Williamsville (ADA compliant). Admission is $15 ($12 for students and seniors). For information and tickets, visit rockriverplayers.org.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.