“Something’s Afoot” a musical who-dun it

  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, April 13 – 15th, Director Mike Swenson and the RLCC High School presented the musical, “Something’s Afoot.” This is the first musical in 35 years performed on the stage at RLCC High School. The musical was written by James McDonald, David Vos, Robert Gerlach, and Ed Linderman and was presented by special arrangement by Samuel French, Inc. 

Mikayla Tabert was the accompanist for RLCC Theater’s production of “Something’s Afoot. Mr. Swenson said that Mikayla worked so well with the actors and actresses to really do well in the songs.  She would go over a song many times until the student felt comfortable with it. 

During rehearsals for the last couple of weeks, Mikayla was here working through the music and during the last two hours of the day, she would work with individuals. She helped bring this musical to life. We could not have done this show without her talents. During the show she paced the music with the actors to make this a truly collaborative effort. It became such an awesome show. Mikayla Tabert skills are extraordinary.

The cast of the musical “Somethings Afoot” included Hannah Kolstoe as Miss Tweed, Sydney Melby as Hope Landon, Kara Longtin as Regina Rancour, Jade Person as Lady Manley-Prowe, Jayden Iverson as Dr. Grayburne, Lilly Guillemette as Letty, Nick Pahlen as Col. Gilweather, Tom Nelson as Geoffrey, David Clifton as Clive, Danny Guillemette as Flint. 

This murder/mystery comedy musical is based on Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. The musical was set on Rancour’s Retreat in England in 1935. Three individuals have come to the island to open the mansion for a weekend holiday for a selected group of guests. Flint (Danny Guillemette) is the caretaker who is rather lazy and Clive (David Clifton) is Lord Rancour’s butler who truly runs the mansion. Letty (Lilly Guillemette) is the newly hired maid who has to take care of the spoiled guests.  She finds the mansion rather eerie and also finds Flint flirting whenever possible.

The guests who have been invited are Regina Rancour (Kara Longtin) who is as greedy as can be and expects to inherit a fortune when her Uncle Dudley Rancour “kicks the bucket one way or another”, Dr. Grayburne (Jayden Iverson) who expects a weekend of food, fun and wine but instead finds bodies piling up, Miss Hope Landon, our platinum blonde who does not have a clue why she was invited, Lady Manley-Prowe (Jade Person) who needs money and expects her ex-husband Lord Rancour to help her out, and Colonel Gilweather (Nick Pahlen), a retired British officer who once had fought a war in India. And last but not least is our detective, Miss Tweed (Hannah Kolstoe), who is our artist. 

All of these people expected nothing but fun but a terrible storm hit and the bridge was washed out and everyone is stuck on the island till the storm passes. But the fun began with an explosion that kills one of the servants, who just informed everyone that Lord Rancour is dead….murdered by person or persons unknown. Miss Tweed starts with the title song “Something’s Afoot” and begins her investigation.

Everyone is frightened as several faint as one of their number was blown up. Hope and Lettie faint into Col. Gilweather’s arms and Dr. Grayburne checks the body. Two people were murdered and the suspicions spread among the guests and staff since the murderer still has to be with them. One of these seemingly innocent people is a killer.  Who is it?

As the evening comes and the guests are frantic with fear, newcomer Geoffrey (Tom Nelson) who was rowing with a group of college friends when the canoe capsized causing him to swim to the island. When he enters the mansion, Geoffrey is tied up and accuses of murder. But he finally convinces the groups of guests of his innocence.

The library becomes the morgue as bodies pile up. This vacation is turning into a “Who Dun It” wondering who will be next. Many clever mechanisms had been created to cause certain members of the group to meet their fate in many clever ways. A torch drops down on one of the guests’ head, another get strangled with her own scarf when an axe hanging on the wall, pulls the scarf tight.

And love blossoms between Hope and Geoffrey as the bodies pile up around them. 

In the final scene, only Hope and Geoffrey are left. Hope begins to believe that Geoffrey could be the killer, but when a record is found it explains that she is the heir of the estate and the Lord Rancour had caused all the deaths, including his own, leaving her everything. 

In celebration Hope & Geoffrey pour themselves a drink as the record continues, informing them that the wine is poisoned and they should not drink it. Too late! Hope and Geoffrey collapse on the couch, falling to the floor, reaching for each other as they also die.

It was a very well done musical play and all of the actors/actresses did a great job. And so did the stage hands who were running all the clever mechanisms. If you didn’t make it to Mike Swenson’s last play at RLCC High School, you missed a great finale.

There were five seniors that made this their finale along with their director Michael Swenson who is retiring this year. Sydney Melby, Jade Person, Hannah Kolstoe, Kara Longtin, Nick Pahlen, and David Clifton gave their all for the end of their high school career. Jade, Sydney and Jayden Fore had been doing theater since they were eight years old in the Oklee Community Summer Theater, one acts and three act plays. 

Mr. Swenson said, “I love the theater and I love working with the students to make the script come alive.”