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'Café Noir' serves up juicy mystery

With black-and-white costumes that reflect the feel of the show and literally suspect characters, the latest Manatee Players production has all the makings for a murder mystery.

Dinner and the opportunity to interact with the actors is the icing on the cake, which is what audiences will get in the Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre "Murder at Café Noir." The show opens tomorrow night at the Manatee Players' original home, the Bradenton Woman's Club, where the Players put on its first productions in the 1940s.

It makes sense for Bradenton's community theater to return home with "Murder at Café Noir," a 1940s spoof on Humphrey Bogart movies.

It's a Bogart-style comedy-mystery, says director/actor Marty Martin. Then, without missing a beat: "At least we hope it is."

Martin directs the show and stars as Rick Archer, a private eye hired to rescue Sheila Wonderly, a young runaway. Archer finds himself at Café Noir right after the café owner was murdered. (Cue the dramatic "Dun-dun-dunnnn" sound.)

Was it the owner's wife or his lover? The British attorney, the thug, the voodoo priestess or the black marketeer?

The audience is enlisted to help find the murderer. Murder mystery dinner theater takes down the imaginary "fourth wall" that's normally between the actors and the audience. In "Murder at Café Noir," the actors play their parts in zones, or areas with six or so tables.

During breaks in the show, audience members can ask the actors questions as they try to figure out whodunit. "Of course, the actors are lying their heads off the entire time," Martin says.

Audience members might make other comments or suggestions throughout the show, he says, but the actors can acknowledge those and go on.

"I like the interaction. The audience gets to be in the play," says Adam Brandao, acting in the roles of Thursby, VanGilder and Rigfield. This is Brandao's first time acting in a murder mystery dinner theater where he get's to interact with the audience.

"Murder at Café Noir" is the first murder mystery for Tina Hundley, too. Hundley plays voodoo priestess Marie LaRue, a role that requires her to use a Haitian accent.

That was a challenge for her, maybe more than getting used to the interactive elements. "In this situation, you have to be prepared for whatever the audience asks. You have to be on your feet and ready for those quick responses," Hundley says.

The interactivity keeps it interesting because there's a different audience every night, says Elaine Levin, who plays the runaway Wonderly.

Levin describes her character as "a working girl, a pro, a streetwalker." The actor is used to playing a goody-goody, so it's fun for her to do something different. If she gets solicited by men in the audience, she says she'll tease them and feed them lines.

All of the characters act suspiciously throughout the show, says Dawn Burns, who plays Madame Toureau. "It's great fun to see us. Every day something new develops. If mistakes are made, we work with them."

Cliff Roles has been in dinner theater musicals before, but those didn't have the interactive element this one does. In "Murder at Café Noir," he plays sleazy lawyer Simon Gutterman.

"You've gotta be very confident in your role in order to be able to play it," says Roles, who gets to flirt with the women in the audience and hopes to keep them guessing the murder's identity until the last second.

Not that anyone knows.

Even when Martin, the director, is asked who committed the crime, he says, "It's still under investigation."

Tiffany St. Martin, features writer, can be reached at 745-7080, Ext. 2035, or tstmartin@HeraldToday.com If you go

What: Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre "Murder at Café Noir"

When: 7 p.m. Aug. 11, 12, 18 and 19; and 1 p.m. Aug. 13 and 20

Where: Bradenton Woman's Club, 1705 Manatee Ave. W.

Tickets: $35 per person and includes dinner. For reservations, call the Manatee Players' box office at 748-5875 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays or 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays

Information: www.manateeplayers.org

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