Clarke High School Theater spring play ‘But why bump off Barnaby?’

This lunatic show poses a fascinating mystery. When Barnaby Folcey is murdered at a family gathering at Marlgate Manor, it transpires that he had a motive to murder everybody else, but no one had a reason to want him dead. While dying, he scrawled the letters “b-a-r,” which can implicate everyone. While the bizarre group frantically tries to unmask the murderer, people vanish, poison is found in the sherry, and the police take forever to arrive. Meanwhile, there’s a secret treasure to be found, a mystifying limerick to decode, and all sorts of doom to be avoided before the kiler is finally unmasked and destroyed using one of the funniest methods ever seen on a stage.

It was becoming a dark and stormy night at the Marlgate Manor when suddenly a blackout occurs, thunder strikes and lightening lights up the sky. The lights come back on, and Barnaby’s dead with a knofe in his back. So who is the culprit?

This wacky, funny mystery play is called “But why bump off Barnaby?’”The ten humorously devised characters are Medkins, Magnolia, Orion Leduc, Barnaby Folcey, Lady Barbara, Rosalind, Cleo Barton, Jeff Barnett, Miss Barnsdale,and Dora Dunstock, each of whom has an alibi and his/her own purpose in the play.

The overall focus of the play is to figure out who murdered Barnaby. All of the characters work together in trying to solve this very perplex, comical mystery, although they tend to end up in dead ends. There are many questions that are left to be answered by Barnaby’s murderer and it’s up to this comedic group of people to find out what’s what, and who’s to blame. Will they be able to figure out the mystery? Or is there another piece to the puzzle that is missing that will lead them to the answer?

The Clarke High School Theater spring play is 7:30 p.m. April 13 and 14 in the High School auditorium.