DEATH BY LAUGHTER

Death by Laughter is an audience participation comedy whodunit. In the first act, Dudley Deride, theatre critic for Portland’s leading newspaper, is murdered in his office. Detectives arrive and begin sifting through clues. Then, one by one, the suspects arrive at the scene of the crime. There’s a hippy rival reviewer, a trigger-happy cop, a belligerent nun, and a psychiatrist who appears to have swallowed the wrong thesaurus. But which one of them killed Dudley Deride? In act two, the audience is invited to question the suspects themselves and decide who killed Deride. On any given night, any of the four suspects could be the killer. Whoever the audience votes for is guilty. It's like politics, only with a happy ending. So the play actually has four different endings, none of them very serious. Death by Laughter pokes fun at local institutions and characters and at itself, never taking anything too seriously, including murder. First produced at ACE in Eugene in 1988 under the title Death of a Gelophiliac, this play was supposedly written by Caesar Romero-Sierra, although he has never shown up to claim it.

Cast & Crew

Det. William Bub -- David Gallic
Cap. Rosie Muck -- Tiffany Longworth
Dudley DeRide -- George Spelvin
Loving Spirit Divine --Brittney Hancock
Sister Sadie -- Rosey Ybarra
Dr. Sophocles Floyd -- John Duncan / J.J. Hawkins

Director -- Alan Smithee
Light Design -- Max Blonde
Sound Design -- Tiffany Longworth
Light/Sound Board -- Tom Henderson
Poster Design -- Tiffany Longworth
Program Design -- David Gallic
House Manager -- Chloe Collins
On-Line Preview -- David Gallic