Lifestyles

'Death by Chocolate' a sweet success

By Angie Long

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:13 AM CDT

Left to right, Fort Dale Academy Players Kyle Paez as Dick Simmering and Kayla Butts as Lady Riverdale are on edge after a terrifying scream in the night. The students were part of Saturday night's "Death by Chocolate" cast. Angie Long/The Greenville Advocate

Last week, audiences got the chance to die laughing as they enjoyed the sweetly amusing mystery play "Death By Chocolate," presented by the Fort Dale Academy Players under the direction of Nonie Taylor.

Not one but two casts offered twice the fun with cast #1 performing Thursday night and cast #2 taking the stage of the Ritz Saturday night.

The play, written by Paul Freed, revolves around an old mansion turned into a health spa and its eccentric array of employees. After the manager dies by his own hand (or so it seems), a new man, John Stone, is brought in and a grand re-opening is planned by its new owner, chocolatier Lady Riverdale.

Soon, other staff members are dropping like flies, and it appears Lady Riverdale's chocolates are the source. Who could be poisoning the sweets - and why?

A reporter attempts to uncover just what is going on at this very unhealthy health resort while Lady Riverdale tries to keep the deaths a secret, and Stone and mystery writer Ed Parlor attempt to solve the case. Murder, mayhem and amusement are the order of the day.

The play pokes fun at the health craze, TV chefs and amateur sleuths and offers many zany one-liners appreciated by its audience.

Cast # 1 featured Lexie Roberts as Lady Riverdale; Caroline Dunklin as Dyslexia; Kendall Gibson as John Stone; Aaron Callen as Ralph Deadwood; Rosemary Russell as Margaret Daniel; Caleb Battiste as Alfred Mellox; Elizabeth Dunklin as Edith Chiles; Casey Rogers as "Sweet Pea" Meadowbrook; Hayden Duke as Dick Simmering; Candice Nichols as Anne; Adam Vickery as Ed Parlor, Paul Whigham as Henry Meadowbrook, with Corrie Middleton, Thomas Phelps and Evie Poole as "the voices" for both casts.

In Cast #2, Kayla Butts played Lady Riverdale; Miranda Neese, Dyslexia; Steven Lee, John Stone; Ralph Deadwood, Matt Hutcheson; Kayla Lee, Margaret Daniels; Davis Watts, Alfred Mellox, Sarah Sims, Edith Chiles; Michele Hulick, "Sweet Pea" Meadowbrook; Kyle Paez, Dick Simmering; Mary Ryan Nielsen, Anne; Jeffrey Stead, Ed Parlor and Henry Meadowbrook, Daniel Paul.