'50s mystery fails to stand test of time

Monday, August 21, 2006 One of the most contrived aspects of the play is the actors' phony British accents. By MILAN PAURICH VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The biggest mystery of "Murder, My Sweet Matilda," the current production at the New Castle Playhouse's Annex Theater, is why veteran director J.E. Ballantyne Jr. elected to dust off such a creaky old warhorse like "Matilda" in the first place. Time hasn't been kind to Janet Green's mothball-encrusted 1950s drawing room suspense thriller. Despite the valiant efforts of Ballantyne and his gifted ensemble, there's not a single moment of real tension, or even mild intrigue, to be found here. Set entirely within the posh Hampstead apartment of Max and Lesley Paul, the play's action spans just three days but feels a lot longer for the audience. Lesley (Kali Davies), the high-strung trophy wife of considerably older book maker Max (Terry Shears), has been receiving threatening phone calls from an unknown man. Because of Lesley's propensity for telling fibs — she "can't tell fantasy from reality" according to her unsympathetic Aunt Bee (Ardith Jane Regdon) — nobody believes her life is truly in jeopardy. Max suspects that his wife is using these so-called "death threats" as an elaborate ruse to strong-arm him into flying off to Venice with her for a long-delayed holiday. Little suspense Green trots out a rogue's gallery of red-herring suspects — including Max's tough-guy employees Eddy and Fenton (Larry Baker and Phillip Clark Jr.); Bee's dandyish son Malcolm (John Pecano); a menacing stranger named Ash (C. Richard Haldi); and Elliot (Thomas Ewen), one of Max's more disgruntled customers. But all of their various entrances and exits seem more like an attempt to pad out the play's running time than generate any palpable suspense. You don't have to have seen Turner Classic Movies staple "Midnight Lace" (the 1960 Rex Harrison-Doris Day movie based on Green's play) to know "whodunit." The solution to the "mystery" is as painfully obvious — and contrived — as much of the cast's British accents. About those accents. I'm not certain why Ballantyne bothered having his actors speak with plumy English accents when it's clearly a struggle for some of them. The worst offenders in the "wobbly accent" category are Shears, Davies and Pecano whose accent comes and goes all night, sometimes within the same line of dialogue. Is it any wonder that Regdon — who doesn't even make an attempt to sound British — fares best of all? (Regdon's dazzling array of hats — on loan from her 91-year-old mother — add some much-needed eye candy to George Orr's rather drab scenic design.) Good performances Also very good is Shenango Valley High School junior Alaina Sapienza in the underwritten role of Lesley's downstairs neighbor/confidante Peggy, and Baker whose sinister mien and coiled intensity would be better served in a David Mamet play. Even if he never quite gets a handle on that whole accent thing, Shears' performance improves in the second act. Davies, unfortunately, overdoes her character's tremulous mannerisms to such a degree that I lost all patience and sympathy for Lesley before the evening was over. There was some minor flubbing of lines opening night, but the biggest faux pas was choosing "Murder, My Sweet Matilda" in the first place. Maybe they should have dug up "Dial M for Murder," another hoary '50s chestnut, instead. It might not have held up any better, but at least there wouldn't have been that cumbersome accent hurdle to navigate. 'Murder, My Sweet Matilda' is playing weekends through Sept. 3 at the New Castle Playhouse Annex Theater, 212 E. Long Ave., New Castle, Pa. For tickets and additional information, call (724) 654-3437.