If everybody loves a good mystery and everyone likes to laugh, then the audiences at the Lake Region High School play are in for a treat beginning tonight.

Taking on a classic, yet modern “whodunnit,” 23 student actors will dive into the characters in The Plot, Like Gravy, Thickens, written by Billy St. John.

Featuring such stock mystery characters as the maid, the butler, the mistress, the lawyer, the first and second wives and the eccentric older woman, there is plenty of comedy in this show to go along with the murder mystery. Everyone has a motive and the audience will be kept guessing until the end.

The show starts out with narrator/playwright Walter, portrayed by senior David DelVecchio and junior Tyler Lafontaine, introducing the scene.

“I thought you might find it interesting to see how I build a murder,” he tells the audience.

Walter then introduces all the “suspects,” aka the other characters.

LRHS seniors play many important roles in the play. Annie O’Connor plays rich, but suspicious second wife Allegra Worthington while Kathryn Rose plays Edwards’s first wife, Justine. Kaytrien Hall plays Walter’s older sister Beatrice. Tyler Stuart and Preston Phillips, portray the brother of Allegra, playboy Tony Blackwell. Rounding out the seniors in the cast are Walker Lavoie as Roy Phillips, business manager, Samuel Brown in the role of Hollister, the butler, Allison Baker as Debra Worthington, Edwards’s daughter and Josh Ross as Lawrence Tate, the lawyer.

Other cast members include juniors Sydney Mushrow and Payton Vogen, sophomores Jenna Jordan, Alice O’Connor and Mackenzie Putnam and freshmen Sierra Allen, Ash Armstrong, Gregory Blackwell, Eva Fickett, Shannon-Marie Goguen, Emma McKenny and Finley Parritt.

The 23 actors and their director, Georgia Hegner, have spent considerable time getting ready for this show. Auditions were held in September and now the finishing touches are complete. Talented costumer, Michelle DelVecchio, has added her special touch to the costumes. The set was designed and built by Chris Madura along with set painter Shannon Avery and set dresser Wanda Vaughn Carr; while special thanks go to TLT Carpentry. Kelly Winslow coordinated props.

This will be a show for the whole family — definitely G-rated, with a lot of physical comedy children will enjoy and plenty of twisty plot points for the grown-ups. Something new in the show is a little bit of audience interaction.

Producer Janet Ver Planck shared that the show “has a great set of characters all unique in their own way and all with a different set of motives.”

So whodunnit? The only way to find out is to head to the Lake Region High School Drama Club’s production The Plot, Like Gravy, Thickens.

Performances are this Thursday and Friday, Dec. 2 and 3 at 7 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 4 and 5. 

Tickets will be available at the door: adult tickets $10 and student/senior tickets $5. Masks must be worn regardless of vaccination status.

The Plot, Like Gravy, Thickensis presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

The Drama Club will be collecting monetary donations for local food pantries.