Chaotic Cooking

Malta School’s Anna LaBrie has ordered up something to whet your appetite and tickle your funny bone as 20 students will perform Cooking Can Be Murder next Monday and Tuesday evenings, April 10 and 11.

“When I am looking for a play for the students, I am looking for something with comedy because that is what brings people in,” LaBrie, Malta’s art teacher, said. “Cooking Can BE Murder” fits that bill and it works well with the crew we have.”

Cooking Can Be Murder is written by Eddie McPherson and was originally published in 2001. McPherson has published over 70 plays in the educational, Community Theater and Christian markets, according to his bio, including Romeo and Juliet Out West and Writing a Will Can Be Murder. In Cooking Can Be Murder, arrogant James Casanova Valentino Bond is in the middle of judging a cooking contest when he (after a dramatic and quite theatrical death scene) falls over with a thud. It seems he’s been unmercifully poisoned. Each contestant is suddenly a suspect with a motive for wanting this man dead, according to the script preview.

“The students like it,” LaBrie said. “The first time we read through it, there was a lot of laughing because there are a lot of great puns in the play and, you know, puns are fun.”

Malta junior Adam Mummey is portraying Detective Biddle and though he hasn’t delved very deep into his character yet, he assured the PCN the play will be a crowd-pleaser.

“It is very humorous,” he said. “I am really looking forward to it.”

Mummey said he has been performing in plays and musicals in Malta since middle school and Murder is his eighth play with Mrs. LaBrie.

“She’s fun to be around and she is a great director,” Mummey said.

Where Mummey hadn’t really cracked the shell of the detective he will play next Monday and Tuesday, Izzy Hallenberg said she has been in deep thought about one of the four characters she will portray.

“For Ms. Glass, I made up a character and she has a cat named “Ears” and he thinks he is 600 different animals,” Hallnberg said. “He got hit by a car and they had to chop off half his brain. That’s Ms. Glass’ backstory and she has two lines.”

Fellow thespian and Malta High School sophomore Shelby Jones said she has been a player in three performances during her school career, the last being The Sneaky Citizens of Saddlesore City.

“I have five roles in this play, all of them flashbacks,” Jones said. “The Policeman is my favorite because policemen save lives. He tries to solve the murder …”

“He’s a bit of a crazy person,” Hallenberg added.

A special feature with the Tuesday performance (April 11) of Murder will be the Dinner Theater hosted by the MHS Culinary Arts class. The event will be held in the school’s cafeteria starting at 5:45 p.m. with hors d'oeuvres and service set to begin at 6 p.m., one hour before the play begins.

“They will be cooking up a great meal and in the play, there is a call for a couple of soufflés, so the class will be cooking those for us as well,” LaBrie said.

Cooking Can Be Murder follows the successful musical put on at MHS entitled the Reluctant Dragon and precedes the next live theatrical performance to hit Phillips County when Shakespeare in the Park comes to town on June 29 to perform Macbeth. Besides Mummey, Hallenberg, and Jones, Murder will also feature such actors as Turk Salsbery, Ryder Anderson, Erica Nagy and Daphne Johnson. The shows start at 7 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, April 10 and 11, and tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults.