“Is it a play or is it real?” That question was likely running through the minds of the audience as they watched this play. This one-act by Tom Stoppard parodies both the parlor mystery format as prominently shown through The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, as well as the critics who watch the play. In addition to these elements of parody, the play also uses themes of farce and satire to tell it’s story.

This play’s conceptual approach recognized its meta-theatrical characteristics, and immersing the audience into the world of the play was a crucial concept to this goal. This play was my first performance that used a “thrust stage,” with the audience seated on three sides of the performance space. During the play, at a theatre in England, two theatre critics known as Moon and Birdboot arrive to review the show, with Moon standing in for the superior critic Higgs. The play-within-the-play is set in the drawing room of Muldoon Manor, a manor surrounded by marshes and swamplands and near a cliff. During the play, the critics’ discussions of what they will write about are often sidetracked by their soliloquies, until by random chance the two critics find themselves involved in a series of events that directly parallel the play they are watching.

Credits: Directed by Ken McCoy, Scenic Design by Krista Franco, Lighting Design by Preston Foss, Sound Design by CJ Barnes, Costume Design by Cheryl Orr, September 2025.

Photos by AndYou Films