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Show Guest Review: "Spider's Web" is sophisticated comedy, full of laughs By Edward Abbey Spider's Web is a murder mystery by Agatha Christie, . the grand old lady of mystery and murder. The time is the 1950's, the place an upper middleclass country home in England, and the murder victim, bumped off in the first . act, is a sleazy dope dealer in a shiny suit played with obnoxious insolence by Curt Stewart. You'll be glad to see him get it. Afterwards, though, everything becomes frightfully complicated (as the English would say) and we all have a devil of a time trying to figure out who did the dastard in. This reporter guessed wrong but I still think I'm right. Spider's Web is a sophisticated comedy, full of laughs. Nobody takes the murder too seriously, least of all the murder suspects. And in this kind of play everyone is a suspect, except perhaps Police Inspector Lord, played with proper pomposity pomp-osity by Robert Kratz, and the humble bobby Constable Con-stable Jones, played by Les Nisbett. All concerned comport themselves with flair, panache, and full English drawing room compe tence. Michael Ashcraft, Bill Higham, John Huner-jager Huner-jager and Rodger Dar-bonne Dar-bonne impersonate in a completely satisfactory manner the roles of urbane, if eccentric, country coun-try gentlemen. Mavis Bochhaus, as the estate gardener, plays her Cockney Cock-ney part with convincing vigor, and Jim Lundberg, as the inevitable butler, out-butlers anybody I ever saw; when not back in the pantry stealing the silver, he steals every scene in which he appears. Miss Susie Abbey, in her first stage appearance does a brilliant job, in my unbiased opinion, as the bright, neurotic child brought up by an obviously obvious-ly incompetent parent. She'll hate me for writing this, but, in her schoolgirl uniform, hair done up in ringlets, she will remind other old-timers besides myself of a certain movie star named Shirley Temp le, God help us all, . especially her father. Star of the show is Julie Walton, playing the big, difficult and centrifugal part of Clarissa Hailsham-Brown. Hailsham-Brown. Looking every bit the lovely lady, she succeeds in taking a simple ordinary murder and weaving it into a fantastic tangle of Gordian complexity, baffling everybody, ev-erybody, especially the police, while charming all. Well done. Final congratulations are due Dannelle Stevens and Robert Kratz, who directed the play, and Don Kogol who designed the impressive, nearly-perfect stage set. Good show Moab Community Com-munity Theatre. Anyone living within 200 miles of our town who fails to see the final performances this week of Spider's Web will be missing the liveliest liveli-est entertainment in all of Grand County, and should be hit on the head with a blunt instrument. ' . i 1 i i . ( V t ' - ! ; it ' iv- : - 'V:. i : Bill Higham as Hugo Birch lectures Jeremy Warrender (John Hunerjager) as he unconcernedly reaches for a sandwich. Hugo is not at all amenable to the idea of trying to hide a dead body. The action takes place in gatha Christie's "Spider's Web," produced by the Moab Community Theatre. The final performances of the play will take place at Star Hall ' Friday and Saturday, May 12-13, at 8 p.m. |