“Who did it?” is a phrase common in murder mysteries.
The Carlmont Drama Department played on this in their production of the play, “Murder’s in the Heir.”
“Murder’s in the Heir” is a comedic murder mystery about the death of a billionaire named Simon Starkweather.
Starkweather, played by Issei Mills, brought his heirs together at Starkweather Mansion to notify them that his will was going to be changed and they were only going to receive $50,000 upon his death. The rest of his fortune was to be used to pay for the cloning of Mr. Starkweather so that he could increase his wealth in his second life.
Most members in the household weren’t thrilled with the idea, and before dawn the next morning, Mr. Starkweather had been pronounced dead; leading to the investigation of the cause of his death.
The play was written with multiple endings, so the murder changed with each performance. The same concept can be seen in the 1985 comedy, “Clue.”
Another thing that the play had was a part written in that broke the Fourth Wall, or the line between the story and reality. This was the director’s part, meant to interrupt the actors and clarify situations for the audience. Both of the directors for this production shared the part.
This production was chosen by the co-directors, juniors Claire Gonzalez and Alex Irby, because of the clue-based plot, among other reasons.
“The title was a pun, I wanted to be part of the production as a director, and [the production] didn’t have any leads so every part was equally as important,” said Irby.
For the directors, this was the first play that they had ever produced.
“It was harder than I expected it to be, but it proved to be a great learning experience. Once tech week came around and everything came together it was a triumph just to see how far we had come since the first read through,” said Gonzalez.
While this was a first for both directors, it was also one of the first high school productions for much of the cast, which was mostly made up of freshmen.
“They were all so talented. They worked just as hard as any of the [older cast members]. I’m glad that I got to be a part of some of their first performances with the Carlmont Performing Arts,” said Gonzalez.
For three of the actors, “Murder’s in Heir” was their first production ever.
Freshman Julia Clark said, “Being in ‘Murder’s in the Heir’ has been the highlight of my freshman year at Carlmont. It ended up being everything I had hoped for and more. Since it was my first production, I learned a lot of valuable lessons about theater, like how hard it is to deal with all the props, sets, costumes, and make-up. I plan to continue being an active member of our absolutely wonderful drama department for the rest of my high school career, and I look forward to being in many more shows.”
