Home Sweet Homicide (Ann Reynolds, Craig Rice)
The past eludes often, no matter how familiar something is there is some aspect of culture which cannot be fully understood over decades, only translated to a better or worse degree.
So there’s a question in my head, and that is this: did Craig Rice, an author known for brutal mystery novels, understand the inherent darkness of his premise of Home Sweet Homicide, or did he miss it entirely?
This is a play where a mother tells her two teen daughters “I know it’s been a strain on you two, since the murders. So let’s just put them out of our minds and really celebrate”. It’s a play where a girl deliberately and consistently plants or tampers with evidence so the police won’t solve a murder. A play where a next-door neighbor is killed and the main thought on one of the character’s minds is if she can hook her mom up with the police detective.
In short, it’s a delight, whether intentionally or no.
Three young children of a mystery novelist hear their neighbor get killed. Instantly they each form a different plan: 1. The eldest daughter thinks it’s time her mom got married, and she may as well marry a police officer, they seem dependable. 2. The middle daughter thinks it’d be great publicity for their mom if she solves a mystery, and so they won’t have to worry about sales anymore. 3. The young son mostly doesn’t care and wants to eat and not be left out.
This forms the spine of what those characters do for the rest of the play as they investigate (either the murder or the romantic interests of a few key adults), obfuscate, and deliberate with each other. Despite the rather dark circumstances the play is incredibly light and breezy, with the kids not fully realizing the consequences of their (or anyone’s) actions.
As one might expect it all ends quite happily for all involved (except the man whose wife was murdered, but we don’t hear much from him.)
A modern production can have a lot of fun in a Brady Bunch Movie kind of way, and it seems like the perfect sort of show for a community theater.
