Maskers’ “Barnaby” rollicking mystery

You may think that the central question in Rick Abbot’s boisterous whodunit play “But Why Bump Off Barnaby?” is, indeed, the very same question in the title. And, of course, that is rather important to the plot. But after seeing the Belfast Maskers perform this zany piece, the real question is, “What in the world is going on here?!”

Abbot’s play is a mix of the smart writing and murder-mystery genre most commonly associated with Agatha Christie. But it throws in a dose of vaudeville, Monty Python and Saturday morning cartoons. The combination, which is also somewhat reminiscent of Neil Simon’s 1976 film spoof “Murder By Death,” makes for high jinks around every tricky corner.

The premise for this daffy drama centers around an old aristocratic English family and the dissemination of a mutual inheritance, or tontine. When the show opens, the long-absent Barnaby Folcey (David Skigen) returns to his family’s estate at the request of the family patriarch, Orion Leduc (Peter Clain). In addition to Barnaby, the guests include the mostly deaf peeress Lady Barbara (Sandhya Maltby); flamboyant fortune hunter Rosalind Barstow (Lisa Goodridge); Hollywood actress Cleo Barton (Mary Blair); intrepid police reporter Jeff Barnet (Leon Janssen); the aged, nearsighted governess Miss Barnsdale (Charlotte Herbold); and the adorable dimwit Dora Dunstock (Emily Sproch). They are tended to and dutifully resented by the serene butler Medkins (Richard Tourigny) and the grudge-bearing maid, Magnolia (Sharon Jones).

Years earlier, a wealthy ancestor created the tontine with five members of the family, each of whom he gave one line of a limerick. When read in its entirety, the poem was to lead to a hidden fortune of gold. As the play opens, Leduc has called the shareholders together to find the treasure.

But before they puzzle together their bequeathal, Barnaby is murdered. As he is dying with a gardening tool stuck firmly in his back, he scrawls the letters B-A-R on a piece of paper. The message, as it turns out, could indict nearly anyone in the house as everyone but Dora has those letters in his or her name.

There is a mystery to be solved here, but the real fun of the play is the script, which is rife with jokes that range from clever to corny. There are a lot of old one-liners, such as when someone says, “Look. Barnaby is gone!” And someone else answers, “But how can I look at Barnaby if he is gone?” Then there are little nuggets such as the nanny’s description of Dora: “She’s not a dunce. She’s just broadcasting on an unfamiliar frequency.”

For a cast made up of community actors, the shtick comes off surprisingly well. Director Gardner Howes clearly has his sights set on having fun above all else, and the sincerity and good spirit of that goal make it easy to overlook some of the shortcomings of less-experienced performers. Still, everyone in the cast makes a contribution to the general success of the show. Particularly notable, however, are the shenanigans of Sandhya Maltby as the deaf heiress who skews every conversation into a comedic comeback, Peter Clain as the grand elder, Lisa Goodridge as his sly fiancee, Charlotte Herbold as the fastidious governess, and Emily Sproch as the naive and bubbly Dora.

Jim Reitz’s set craftily recreates the parlor of the ancestral home, and plays no small role in the mysterious occurrences in the play.

In the end, you’ll find out why Barnaby gets bumped. But mostly, you’ll appreciate this evening of goofy good times.

The Belfast Maskers will perform “But Why Bump Off Barnaby?” 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17-27, at the Railroad Theatre in Belfast. For information, call 338-9668.