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Review: Mister Murdery Mixing hysterical humor and humorous hysteria, the Cardboard Box Theatre Company celebrates the Halloween season with the world premiere of Stephen Karam's absurdist farce. It's a wild send-up of murder mysteries, but this energetically (at times frantically) paced late-night show also casts an eye on gender and ethnic issues. The action takes place in Citytown General Hospital on a dark, stormy night. Three of the institution's patients, Citytown's entire lesbian population, have been murdered. Punctuated by periodic flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, the frenzied whodunit culminates in a parody of the surprisingly sudden disclosures of true identities that typify stage mysteries. The actors, including Darius Pierce, Kerry Silva and Sam Kusnetz, all deal agilely with Karam's nonstop, exuberant word play. Pierce, as the imperious Nurse Silver, and Silva, as the squeaky-sweet Nurse Cherry, tumble through the show almost acrobatically. |