What do you do with a novel left unfinished when a master storyteller passes on? Well, if you're playright Rupert Holmes, you create a Tony Award winning musical comedy that embraces the fact that the work was unfinished. If you're Trinity Rep, you see a play that reaches out into the audience and draws its membersin as participants of the play. And if you're me, you go see it and laugh yourself silly.

Throughout the play, the actors interact directly with the audience, at times singing songs involving an audience member, at another time dropping a "dead body" in unexpecting front row laps. The script actually makes the entire audience part of the cast -- we were not Rhode Island theater-goers, instead we were patrons of a Victorian England music hall. And not just patrons of the music hall, but familiar regulars that are in on the backstage gossip and with our own favorite music hall performers.

That familiararity is enhanced by the design of Trinity's main theater, created without proscenium and curtains, the stage spill out into the audience. For this performance, additional staging was created within the seating areas. Even Rhode Island funny-man Charlie Hall played the piano from a platform set among the audience members.

The story -- Young Edwin Drood and his fiancee Rosa Bud had been forced into their relationsip by their now-departed parents. Edwin's uncle, John Jasper, loves Rosa. Of course Charles Dickens was paid by the word, so he didn't leave the story at that. He gives Jasper a double life -- not only is he an underpaid choir-master for Rosa's church-based foundling home, but at times he's an opium-smoking psychotic. We find out that the chruch's parson once loved Rosa's mother and might have been involved in her unexpected death, we meet the mayor whose wife had recently died, the gravedigger and his son "Deputy", the church sextant who aspires to acting, and the Queen of London's Red Light district Princess Puffer.

Oh, and on top of that, add two new orphans from Ceylon. Pretty much, everyone has a reason to want Edwin Drood dead, so when he disappears in a Christmas-Eve thunderstorm, there's plenty of suspicion and plenty of suspects.

But Dickens died before writing the end of the book. That leaves us with critical questions: Is Drood really dead? Who is that mysterious investigator who is snooping around asking questions? If Drood is dead, then who killed him? And since every story needs a happy ending, whose unexpected romance blossoms?

Instead of answering that question for us, the play lets us choose. In a display of direct democracy, the cast members tally the audience's votes and then perform the endings that we choose.

My wife and I enjoyed the play, laughing aloud even hours later when we spoke of some of the play's twists. I think I laughed loudest when the cast stopped a song in mid-bar, followed by the announcement "... and that is where Mr. Dickens died."

I highly recommend making the show. It runs through October 9th, so there's not much time left.

Here are a few more details from Trinity:

Play by Rupert Holmes, based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel
Director: Amanda Dehnert
Choreographer: Sharon Jenkins
Music Director: Tim Robertson
Designers: Eugene Lee (Set Designer), William Lane (Costume Designer), Brian J. Lilienthal (Lighting Designer) and Peter Sasha Hurowitz (Sound Designer).
Stage Manager: Barbara Reo
Cast: Michael Hance, Rose Weaver; company members Stephen Berenson, Timothy Crowe, William Damkoehler, Mauro Hantman, Phyllis Kay, Brian McEleney, Stephen Thorne, Rachael Warren; with Brown /Trinity Rep Consortium students Jessie Austrian, Elizabeth Hallaren and Meagan Prahl and Musicians Kevin Fallon and Steve Jobe.
Sponsor Rhode Island Monthly and Trinity Rep’s Inner Circle
Humanities Rep Discussion Saturday, October 8 post 2pm performance discussion
ASL-interpreted Sunday, October 9 at 2pm
Group Info Susan Robin at 521-1100 x223, discounts for groups of 10+
Web Site www.trinityrep.com
Box Office (401) 351-4242
201 Washington Street, Providence, RI 02903
Regular Ticket Prices $25 previews, $40 Weekdays, $50 Weekends
Discounted Ticket Prices $15 Rush tickets, 2 hours prior to showtime.
$20 educators, military, firefighters & police (valid ID required)
$15 Student tickets (valid ID required)
$10 Bench Seats - Last row of Chace Theater (upstairs)
10% Senior discount (valid ID required)
Season Sponsor NBC 10
Supporting Sponsors Rhode Island Monthly, RIPTA, RISCA.

Under the direction of Amanda Dehnert, the cast includes Rachael Warren as Edwin Drood (Charles Strouse’s You Never Know, Songs of Innocence…), Brian McEleney as the host for the evening, the Chairman (The Henriad, The Merry Wives of Windsor), William Damkoehler as Reverend Crisparkle (The Henriad, The Moliere Impromptu), Michael Hance as the choirmaster John Jasper (My Fair Lady), Mauro Hantman as the exotic Neville Landless (Charles Strouse’s You Never Know, The Moliere Impromptu), and Phyllis Kay as his twin sister Helena (The Moliere Impromptu, The Merry Wives of Windsor), Timothy Crowe as Durdles (The Henriad, The Moliere Impromptu), Stephen Thorne as Deputy (The Henriad, The Moliere Impromptu), and Stephen Berenson as the luckless Bazzard (The Moliere Impromptu, The Merry Wives of Windsor). Rounding out the cast are three Brown/Trinity Rep consortium students Jessie Austrian (as Rosa Bud), Elizabeth Hallaren and Meagan Prahl; and musicians Kevin Fallon and Steve Jobe.

The artistic team includes Tim Robertson (Musical Director), Eugene Lee (Set Designer), William Lane (Costume Designer), Brian J. Lilienthal (Lighting Designer) and Peter Sasha Hurowitz (Sound Designer). Amanda Dehnert (Director/Trinity Rep’s acting artistic director) directed last season's premiere of Charles Strouse’s musical You Never Know and Henry IV. Previous productions include of Annie, Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience and My Fair Lady. Ms. Dehnert is on the faculty of the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. She received a 2000 Gielgud Fellowship (SDFC) and an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director (My Fair Lady). Sharon Jenkins’ (Choreographer) work as a choreographer for Trinity Rep has spanned 30 years, 3 artistic directors, and dozens of productions, including West Side Story, The Music Man, Fall, and Annie.

Trinity Rep will dedicate the final performance of The Mystery of Edwin Drood to the Red Cross’ efforts to aid victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Company actor and New Orleans native Joe Wilson, Jr. will host the benefit performance Sunday October 9th at 7:00 pm. Trinity Rep has donated approximately 250 tickets to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, a value of over $10,000. Tickets can be purchased directly from The American Red Cross Rhode Island Chapter: (401) 831-7700 or online at www.riredcross.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the door, subject to availability.

Evacuees currently living in Middletown, RI, will be invited, along with American Red Cross Rhode Island Chapter volunteers who have served the relief effort in Middletown and in the Gulf Coast. Actor Joe Wilson, Jr. whose family evacuated New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, will host the evening’s performance. “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita dealt a terrible blow to New Orleans, where I was born and raised, as well as to so many other communities on the Gulf Coast,” said Joe Wilson, Jr., a member of Trinity Rep’s acting company. “Rhode Islanders have opened their hearts, their neighborhoods and their wallets to help the people of the Gulf Coast. At Trinity Rep, we’re glad to help by doing what we do best – a light-hearted Tony Award-winning musical comedy. I hope many people will join us on October 9th, and send another strong message of support to the people of the Gulf Coast.” Wilson was seen last season in Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Topdog/Underdog, and will perform this season in A Christmas Carol, Hamlet and Rhode Island: Untitled.

About the author, Paul Pence: Not a life-long Rhode Islander, Paul got to Rhode Island as fast as he could. He has 25 years of writing experience and numerous publication credits including the Providence Journal, the East Greenwich Magazine, Weissmann Travel Reports, Travel Lady Magazine, Jackhammer, Your Skin and Sun, TravelNotes, TexWoman, and many others.

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