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Show Writing makes "Inspector Hound" enjoyable play By Jay Wamsley If I told you the second scene of "The Real Inspector Hound" was a rerun or a near exact copy of the first, and yet was in-triguingly in-triguingly funny as you viewed it the second time, you might not believe me. Or at least you might be confused. But it was. And you couldn't be nearly as confused as those who witnessed the intertwining of characters to accomplish the feat. The writing that went into "Hound" was the key to the play's success. As the production develops, a spectator is reminded of those dreams he has had that are so vivid he is not certain whether he is dreaming or not. So it is with several of the characters of the play-their dreams and aspirations and anticipations become so real they are brought into reality with the help of the rest of the cast. Casually mentioned on the bottom of the program listing the cast of characters is the note: "the critics for tonight's performance per-formance will be Mr. David Birdboot of the Times and Mr. Ernest Moon of the Sun." There to originally review the whodunnit, these characters soon become eveloped in it. "Hound", written by Thomas Stoppord (who also penned to more often produced "Rosencran and Gildenstern are Dead," also a parody), is billed as a parody of 1930 Agatha Christie-type Christie-type detective mysteries. A good deal of fun is poked at the sterotypes, the mansion recluse setting and the characters involved in such a novel. Take for example Mrs. Drudge, the housekeeper, played by Linda Nelson. Well costumed (looking like she just stepped out of Mary Poppins), Mrs. Drudge has the habit of always popping pop-ping out of nowhere whenever the word "kill" is mentioned. The phone is repeatedly ringing and as Drudge answers it she is compelled to offer her assistance to the audience by explaining ex-plaining the scene, such as: "Later that same evening at the Muldoon residence, Hello." Director Joseph Gilg said he felt the part of Moon, from the Sun, was the most difficult to cast, the key to the play and the one on which the tempo of the production relied. Both Moon, played by Ernest "Chip" Bruce, and Birdboot, played by David Evans, deserve laurels for their opening night performance, per-formance, particularly Evans, who make the transitions from critic to actor very well. Also commendable performances were delivered by Curt Bandenberg, who played Magnus Muldoon, "the crippled brother-in-law of widow Cynthia Muldoon who popped in from Canada one day out of nowhere." But it was actually Stoppord who stole the show with his handling of the parody and the characters. A short play, lasting just an hour, it was enjoyable for the small crowd (very sparsely attended-the only drawback to the production) right up to the fourth (yes, the fourth) curtain call. |