Door to 'The Murder Room' is best left unopened

by Paul Moser sportseditor

"The Murder Room," written by Jack Sharkey and performed by the King of Prussia Players, was a British mystery comedy that had little mystery and no comedy. It took over two and a half hours for someone to die in this exhausting production and that was two hours and 29 minutes too late.

"The Murder Room" failed for many reasons. One reason was the lack of comic direction and timing. This production was the perfect example of how difficult it is for American actors to do British comedy. The characters that were supposed to be funny and sharp, instead were dimwitted and slow.

The lack of timing hid the comic moments to the audience which, in tum, made the already-long production seem longer. Characters would tend to react to themselves and not to each other. The dialogue at times was muffled and jumbled to add to the distraction on stage.

The characters were not well defined. Instead of seeing the zany cast of characters, which were written by Sharkey, the audience was subjected to a dull and lifeless array of awkward moments. With better direction I think that the characters could have gotten the laughs, which would have saved the show.

With the exception of Mary Ann Draper as Mavis Hollister and Anne Allen as Mrs. Lottie Molloy, the actors in this production seemed confused on stage.

At times, Draper, who is on stage for most of the production, would spit out her line and the other character on stage would either pause to long or react weakly, ruining the comedic moment. The set ups were there but nobody could spike the ball.

It seemed like Draper and Allen were on one level of talent and the rest of the cast was about three steps below them. Lawrence Anderson, Bob DeMarco and Dana Coutine were uninteresting and underdeveloped. It was a shame, considering that these three characters were the ones that could have gotten a lot of laughs.

To contribute to the lack of interest on stage were the awful conditions at Upper Merion High School. The acoustics were horrible which necessitated microphones. The microphones, however, were drowned out by the roar of a one ton air conditioner blowing above my head which, by the way, caused the temperature in the building go below the comfort level.

To wrap things up, "111eMurder Room" is a room best left locked.