British Flavor: WLT's 'Cat's Cradle' a traditional English mystery

View larger image Roxie Orndorff, as Peggy, gets flowers from Barbara Swink, as Dr. Merton, at the front desk. Dennis Grundman/Daily If you go "Cat's Cradle" will play at Winchester Little Theatre, at 315 W. Boscawen St., in Winchester, from March 11 to 26. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Ticket prices are $18.75 for adults, $16.75 for seniors and $14.50 for students. For tickets or information, call the box office at 662-3331 or visit the Web at www.wltonline.org. Recommend This Print This Get E-mail News Alerts Buy Photos/Page Reprints * Breaking News If local news is breaking and you know about it: * Call Us: 800-296-5137 * E-mail Us * Upload Your Photos View larger image Roxie Orndorff, left, as Peggy, watches her husband, Randy Orndorff, center, as Sam, shake hands with James Murray, as Detective Jack Frost. Dennis Grundman/Daily View larger image Murray questions Barbara Swink, as Dr. Merton. Winchester Little Theatre’s English mystery “Cat’s Cradle” will run March 11-26. Dennis Grundman/Daily View larger image Nancy Ticknor, as Pamela Fulton, catches her daughter Tara Barrett, as Sarah Fulton, with James Schlosser, as Bob Marriot, being coaxed away. Dennis Grundman/Daily

By Josette Keelor - jkeelor@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER - As Winchester Little Theatre prepares its third foray into British theater this season, the cast promises an experience quite different from those offered by the farce "Out of Order" or the country-hopping crime drama "Ladies Who Lunch."

Their upcoming play "Cat's Cradle," by Leslie Sands, is a traditional mystery set in the English countryside and, according to director Bill Heavner, will leave the audience guessing until the very end.

Unfolding on a unit set, the two-act production depicts a cozy country inn in 1983 England, and follows a mystery that has been haunting Detective Jack Frost for 12 years. Now, hoping to tie up some loose ends before retiring, the detective, played by James Murray, returns to the small town of Waverton to reinvestigate a cold case of a missing baby.

The plot thickens when he arrives in town to find that no one seems to want him there.
"It's like they don't want to solve [the case]," Heavner says. Years earlier there had been almost no clues in the case, strange enough in a small town where everyone knows everyone else and surely someone must know something.

"It just doesn't seem to go anywhere," Heavner says of the initial investigation.
Now, upon finding the townsfolk, even the missing child's own family, so cold to the detective's inquiries, Frost has his work cut out for him.

His first hurdle is the innkeeper, Peggy, played by Roxie Orndorff, and her husband, who want to turn away the detective but, by law, cannot refuse him a room. Frost soon learns that the town is preparing for a wedding the following day, and the bride is the missing child's sister, Sarah, now 19, played by 15-year-old Jara Barrett.

"It's a wonderful cast and everybody's worked very hard on their characters," says Murray, who makes his WLT acting debut in the toughest role of the play.

"I have a lot of lines, a lot of lines," he says. "I'm literally on almost every page."
"At first it was a little daunting," he says.

Murray, an ESL teacher at Handley High School in Winchester and a bilingual theater teacher at Shenandoah Conservatory, made his first appearance at WLT in "Out of Order" as the prop person on the broken window. Heavner insists that the window was a role onto itself.

"This is the first time I've ever done anything serious," Murray says, explaining that he normally does comic roles. "It's been a challenge, but it's also been a lot of fun, too."
Other roles in the play are played by Barbara Swink, Bill Westgard, Randy Orndorff, James Schlosser and Nancy Ticknor.

"It all takes place from a Friday afternoon to a Saturday afternoon," Heavner says. He believes the one location and tight timeline help make the story more intimate to the audience. The story's setting, 28 years ago, also facilitates the plot.

"We couldn't update it, because the forensics have changed so much," he says.

Without modern science under his belt, and with a town full of tight-lipped suspects, the detective must use only his wit and intuition to solve the crime.

Heavner describes Frost as "one of these typical English detectives who's human and crafty." He manages to put all the pieces together in the end.

"It's got some humor ... It's more sarcastic humor that comes out of my character," Murray says.

On the whole, it's appropriate for all ages, he assures.

"We want to make sure that everyone's entertained and that the accents are good."

"As long as there's a flavor," he says. "Give them a flavor that it's British," and it'll work.

Having relocated to the area from Tennessee four years ago, Murray joined the community stage mostly from an interest in acting, but also because of the talent at WLT.

"I saw 'Into the Woods,' and that's what kind of got me interested."