SPIKE Tape’s “Clue”: A Night of Mystery and Fun

On Friday, Oct. 30, at 6 p.m. and on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., director David Ezra Flatau-Jones ’27 brought the dinner party at Boddy Manor to life in SPIKE Tape’s production of “Clue,” which took the stage at the historic Russell House.

The room’s warm lighting, emanating from antique table lamps and carefully placed stage lights, felt very inviting, and a beautiful painted portrait sat in the middle of a table. Played by Avi Kahtan ’28, the Boddy Manor’s butler, Wadsworth, greeted audience members as they settled in and asked them questions about their visit to the manor.

Flatau-Jones gave a speech at the start of the show about the play’s structure: an immersive experience in which the audience moves around the rooms in Russell House for different scenes. Each room was decorated to represent another part of the fictional mansion.

With a background in design, Flatau-Jones tackled the venue with an artistic lens.

“All of last year, I was very focused on architecture and spatial design,” he said. “I took Architecture I and Architecture II. That’s where I met Oliver [Mazner ’28] and Arielle [Gold ’27], who became my stage managers and production managers. So, I think spatial design was a big part of just the creative process going into the show.”

The setting of Russell House was integral to the production. Flatau-Jones said that in the pitching process, advocating for staging “Clue” in this specific building was very important to him.

“The design of the rooms [includes] neoclassical architecture and [is] really well furnished for ‘Clue,’ specifically,” he said. “So, I wanted to just try and stage it in a way where we could use the house to its full potential. I think it made it a really cool [and] immersive experience for an audience of that size. It was a lot of fun to do.”

Soon after the play started, the maid, Yvette, played by Shreya Savur ’28, entered and dusted the tables to prepare for the guests. The cook, played by Olivia Neaman ’30, came in from the kitchen and said that dinner would be ready “sharp.” Shortly after, the guests arrived.

The first guest was the frazzled Colonel Mustard, played by Justin Atnes ’28, who was confused about whether he was at the right address. Mrs. White, the socialite, played by Isabel Miller ’29, entered next and exchanged a cold glance with Yvette, hinting at a past falling out. The posh Mrs. Peacock, played by Liv Daigneault ’27, arrived and immediately shot the cook a wide-eyed stare, saying she had never seen the cook before. Mr. Green, played by Ethan Diamondstein ’29, came in surprised, admiring the manor’s opulence. The sultry Professor Plum, played by Murray Susen ’29, entered with the chic Miss Scarlet, played by Clara Goldman ’28, and exchanged some fiery banter. The dinner guests’ names were all pseudonyms to conceal their identities, as determined by the party’s host, Mr. Boddy, played by Lucas Tikkala-Cutler ’30.

Wadsworth led the audience to the manor’s elegant dining room. Over dinner, the guests shared more information about themselves. After the end of that scene, Wadsworth escorted the audience to the study. 

It was then revealed to the guests that they had all been blackmailed for doing things that are “un-American.” The party’s host, Mr. Boddy, arrived with a suitcase of evidence. After the guests were handed gift bags with weapons, the lights flickered off, and he was found dead on the floor. 

The rest of the play was a series of exciting turns and comedy. As the mystery further unfolded, Wadsworth guided the audience to various rooms where more people were found dead. The play then descended into chaos as the guests split into pairs and searched the house for clues. 

The characters were all very well defined, creating hilarious dynamics. Overall, the play had great comedic rhythm, which was something important to Flatau-Jones. 

“A lot of the really well-done student theater here often has a more serious tone, which is beautiful, and there’s really important storytelling there,” Flatau-Jones said. “And I think there…was always space for silly comedy, ’cause I think we all always need a good laugh. I think that kind of made me decide to pitch ‘Clue,’ something familiar, something that I knew people would know and would be welcome here, but also something that I didn’t think had been talked about or done recently.”

Flatau-Jones noted that SPIKE Tape’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” last season was a big inspiration for his production.

“When watching ‘Spelling Bee,’ I’m like, I want to make something that’s just really fun for everyone involved,” Flatau-Jones said. “And I think the best way to, like, really get an audience to enjoy an experience is for it to be enjoyable, like for the products to be enjoyable, and like for the actors on stage to be like visibly having fun, like, that just becomes infectious.”

The play’s comedy was truly infectious. It was clear the cast had a great time leaning into their characters. Colonel Mustard in particular was frazzled and embraced his lack of awareness. One moment I loved was when the characters searched for clues, and Colonel Mustard walked past the audience holding the Clue board game box.

“I don’t know, it’s like a map or something,” he said, as he walked away with the board game.

The characters all had moments where they shone, including a showstopping moment when Kathan, as Wadsworth, recapped what had happened so far in the play in under five minutes. They ran around the room, reenacting different events and delivering witty imitations of the guests and characters in a crazed climax to the play’s mysteries. 

From making out with dead bodies to mistaking choking for charades to shocking identity reveals, “Clue” embraced chaos and was a fun, engaging experience. 

What makes “Clue” special is that it was Flatau-Jones’s first play he directed. A past iteration he directed at his summer camp inspired the Russell House staging.

“For me, my directing experience was effectively nothing except for adapting ‘Clue’ to a group of kids at the summer camp I work at, and with that one, we did something unconventional with how we staged it, where we had the audience in the middle, and they would turn just in their seats, and the staging would kind of be like around the walls of a very large room,” Flatau-Jones said. “I really enjoy just kind of taking a script that I was familiar with and staging it differently.”

Eleanora Freeman can be reached at eafreeman@wesleyan.edu.