Vestavia Theater Department's Clue is a Smashing Success!

For the 2023-2024 Fall play, the VHHS theater department put on a rendition of Clue, a comedy written by Jonathan Lynn. The play was directed by our theater teacher Jamie Stephenson, and all of the acting and technical work was done by students. Opening night was October 26, and there were shows each night until the 29.

The play follows a deadly dinner party and the six strangers who are invited. They are each given a pseudonym, and are warned to not reveal their true identities.

The butler, Wadsworth (RJ Johnson), welcomes the guests to Boddy Manor, the residence of one Mr. Boddy (Isaac Johnson). As the dinner party progresses the strangers learn bits about each other, until they eventually reveal their true identities. Colonel Mustard (Emory Brooks) is a distinguished general; Mrs. White (Juliet Henderson) is a widow whose most recent husband has just passed; Mrs. Peacock (Nyla Galloway) is the wife of a senator; Mr. Green (Carson Thomas) is a loyal employee of the U.S. State Department; Professor Plum (Hollis Coleman) is a former psychiatrist; and Miss Scarlet (Dana Cheek) runs an underground escort service in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Boddy finally arrives, and reveals his purpose for the party. All of his guests have been participating in “un-American” behavior, and he has been blackmailing them to keep it a secret. With communism on the rise, all of the guests have a reason to keep their antics hidden. Mr. Boddy gives them each a murder weapon and an ultimatum: kill Wadsworth and double the price for his silence, or go to jail.

There is a sudden blackout and a gunshot. When the lights come back on, Mr. Boddy is dead! In the frenzy afterwards, the cook (Bailey Corley) and the maid, Yvette (Ellie Hoar), are both killed. The guests spend the rest of the night scrambling to solve the murder and hide the bodies before the police arrive.

In the end, it is revealed that Wadsworth was actually Mr. Boddy in disguise, and he was planning on exposing them all to the police anyway. Mr. Green reveals himself to be an FBI agent. The Boddy family has been involved in organized crime for generations, and the FBI has been investigating. When the real Mr. Green received an invitation, he went to the police, and they seized the opportunity. Green shoots Boddy, and he hands the rest of the guests over to the police (Rebecca Cook and Blake Krablin).

Overall, the VHHS theater department did an excellent job and put months of work into this production. The set was complex, and they used moving platforms as a clever way to show multiple different rooms on a small stage. The actors’ portrayals of the characters were hilarious, and I, along with the rest of the audience, was entertained the whole time. If you didn’t get a chance to see the fall play, they will be putting on a different show in the spring that I’m sure will be just as good as this one.