Community theater presents dinner event at TayBeck’s this weekend
by Angie Asam, Staff Writer
?Murder at the Caf? Noir? will take over TayBeck?s Grille and Bar on Bradley Highway in Rogers City this Saturday and Sunday. The play is a comic tribute to the Bogart movies of the 1940s written by David Landau. It features a cast of 12, four men, three women and five denizens of the night. The Rogers City Community Theatre (RCCT) production is directed by Donna Klein and is sure to be an enjoyable show. ?We have an excellent cast, a wonderful and slightly risqu? mystery to solve and actors giving at least 100 percent to provide quality comedic entertainment for our community. This play promises to be a lot of fun by providing edge of your seat suspense and lots of laughs,? said Klein.
Dinner for the evening will be tropical shrimp on a sugar cane skewer, salad and rolls, chicken breast topped with sweetened brandy sauce, apples and cranberries and a desert of homemade bread pudding with cinnamon raisin bread. A cash bar will be available although soft drinks will be of no charge.
The mystery begins on the Caribbean islet of Mustique with the announcement of the murder of Andre Gauvreau, owner of the Caf? Noir and a few other businesses of local interest. The audience is invited to participate in solving the whodoneit, with a prize awarded at the end to the patron who can crack the case. Ed Perrault plays Rick Archer, a private eye who?s always wanted to be Bogart in one of those 1940s film noir movies and has not gotten his chance. Val Schalk stars as Madam Toureau, a lady who has seen it all as the manager of the Caf? Noir, where everything is for sale.
Sheila Wonderly is played by Danielle Farmer, Sheila, once a spoiled rich girl took a job at the Caf? Noir and learned about life the hardest way of all and becomes hardened in the process. Robert Starnes plays Anthony Cairo, a dealer in the black market working in Caf? Noir to avoid the St. Vincent Police. Meghan Riordan plays Marie LaRue, a
Simon Gutterman, a lawyer who lost his standing when he was implicated in a scandal of having affairs with wealthy female clients and now caters to the clientele of Cafe Noir, always looking for a quick way to make it to the top is played by Paul Hopkins. Wesley Eagleson stars as Thursby a two-bit gunrunner as well as VanGilder a Dutch blackmailer and Rigfield a British cop from St. Vincent. The denizens and dropouts are played by Sheela Welch Allum, David Crull, Karl W. Heidemann, Andrea Shadbolt and Morgan Suszek.
Tickets are $30 each or $50 per couple and include dinner. Seating is limited and only ticketholders will gain admittance to the show. You may purchase yours at the Rogers City Theater, 257 North Third St., (989-734-3861 hotline or 989-734-7367), the Rogers City Area Chamber of Commerce, 292 S. Bradley Hwy (U.S. 23), (989-734-2535), the Presque Isle County Advance, 103 South Third St., (989-734-2105) and TayBeck’s Grille & Bar (989-734-4531).