Picture the scene: You are a child under ten years old; you meet three other children, each quite young, Brendan (Patrick Lamborn) is a mandolin prodigy and an Elvis impersonator. After an intense session of imaginative play, using all of your favorite toys at a local playhouse, in which you perform a dangerous plane landing and take a steep jump from a high precipice with Amelia Earhart. You notice that one of your favorite toys has a broken door. It’s the airplane. That plane would never take off with such a glaring defect. You are faced with the troubling questions, how did this toy break and who did it? You decide to band together to find the “bad guys” responsible for such a dastardly act and to “save the playhouse.”
This is the premise for the Dragon’s Eye Theatre production of A MYSTERY? by P. Seth Bauer and the ensemble. Performed at the Smith Memorial Playhouse, it’s an interactive whodunit capturing a frenetic day of play and the subsequent investigation to uncover the true culprit (or culprits) behind the rash of broken toys. Designed for a younger audience, the joy that the cast members feel as they engage in the sort of imaginative play most of us haven’t experienced since we were eight years old is infectious and helps to create an entertaining experience for people of all ages. [Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse] September 7-22, 2013, fringearts.ticketleap.