The Cat and the Canary

Move Over, Sylvester!

The Cat and the Canary

A Theater Review

Combine a spooky house in the country with secret passages, its dead misanthropic owner, his creepy housekeeper who speaks of ghosts, six relatives present to hear the results of his will and an escaped lunatic and it’s small wonder why a 101-year old play is still being produced.

Written by John Willard in 1922, The Cat and the Canary is a stage play that’s been made into a movie four times, along with no doubt innumerable local theater and high school productions.

Directed and adapted to the stage by J.D. Mizikowski, Cat is currently being performed at All an Act Theatre Productions and its cast ably fills the shoes of their characters. Mrs. Pleasant (Natalie Waddell-Rutter) is the housekeeper and spookster, Mr. Crosby (Matt Dante) is the lawyer in the charge of the will, Harry Blythe (Ben Robson) is a cantankerous failed businessman, Cicily Young (Robin Baranski) is an aviatrix, Susan Sillsby (Christine Pawlowski) is an elderly matron, Charlie Wilder (Daniel Stripp) is a hammy actor and Paul Jones (Andrew Heidt) a nebbish veterinarian.

The play revolves around Annabelle West (Tori Snyder) a renown photographer whose potential inheritance sets almost every one of her relatives against her in hopes of obtaining her legacy–that is, if she can be proven mentally unfit. That said, the game is afoot.

Wordplay with an underpinning of greed and resentment simmers toward Annabelle until near the intermission of this three-act play when death first strikes. However, it isn’t until the final 10 minutes when action and chaos arrive hand in hand.

Snyder’s performance as the kind-but-targeted Annabelle leads the cast as the snarky and catty Cicilly nips at her heels; meanwhile wimpy Paul proves to be invaluable to his soon-to-be wealthy cousin.

Though set in upstate New York during the mid 1930’s, the rapacious yet top of the range characters within Cat seem torn from an Agatha Christie whodunit, but with two billion novels sold, who’s complaining?

Maybe that’s the secret of the success of The Cat and the Canary?

**Daphne Beaumont

The Cat and the Canary continues through October 15. For more information regarding upcoming shows, visit allanact.net