POTTER PLAYERS 'Dead Giveaway' keeps the audience guessing

The director said the plot is suitable for all ages.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
The Potter Players in East Liverpool are geared up for their October presentation.
"Dead Giveaway," a comedy chiller by Pat Cook, will be directed by Mary Beth Morse. She is the president of the board at Potter Players and has been involved with theater for about 11 years, having directed for five.
"It's a play about five elderly spinsters who live together and are all trying to kill each other," Morse said. "There is a pot of money that will go to the last survivor, but none of the ladies know what the others are doing. The doctor has hired a cook to check up on what's going on but doesn't know that one of the ladies has hired her, too. He becomes very harried, trying to keep them all safe and wondering what is killing them."
Morse says she likes the play because it features mostly women, often easier to cast when working with a small community theater.
But she also likes the plot. "This play is different, because the clues keep changing," she said. "Just when you think you have it figured out -- oops -- no, that's not the right one. And it is full of puns that people in their 40s to 60s will really understand. But it is suitable for all ages."
Cast of characters
Pam McDowell, of East Liverpool, plays Beryl, the owner of the house. She has been involved in theater since 1995, first with her children, but onstage herself for about four years.
"Beryl brought all these people together because of a tontine, a secret they pledged to protect, which is the treasure," McDowell said. "That is their common thread. Beryl is wealthy, high society, above the petty arguing and crankiness that goes on between the others, although they all bicker. But everyone looks to her to hold things together. She hired the cook to check up on things."
Fiona, played by Nancy Welling, is writing a novel that the others think is about them, but she swears it is just a story. "Beryl thinks she is sickening sweet," McDowell said. "And she thinks Dinah, the former Hell's Angel, played by Nancy Wolfe, is just silly, flaky."
Dinah's line throughout the play is "What did I miss? Who died?" while Evelyn, the former actress, played by Cheryl Pierce, keeps acting out death scenes. "She is an argumentative, nasty know-it-all," McDowell said. "Catherine, the gardener, played by Tammy Jones-Hancock, talks in riddles, so you really have to listen to what she says."