Wm. E Hay Secondary’s Wildcat Theatre has another successful production in the books.
Running from Feb. 8-10, the student thespians performed Deadline, a new play written by Don Zolodis, in the Stettler Performing Arts Centre (PAC).
The story finds eight mystery writers arriving in a mansion on a fog-shrouded island off the east coast of Canada, there to participate in the “deadline challenge.”
They believe that they are there to work on their current projects, however, the writers soon find themselves to be in a mystery of their own.
The host of the challenge, Dellacroix, lets the writers know that in reality, the challenge is more diabolical; whoever can plan the perfect murder of another writer, and get away with it without another writer solving it, will be awarded a book deal.
Deadline is classed as a “horror comedy,” and with its many twists, turns, and events that keep the audience in suspense, it also keeps the audience laughing throughout its full run time of nearly two hours, including a 15-minute intermission.
The characters vary, from the imaginative wife constantly dreaming up ways to kill her husband in her books, the TikTok star without a clue, the sweet Southern Belle willing to do anything to escape her family to the university student who managed to press everyone’s buttons, suspects are aplenty when the bodies start dropping.
Deadline featured a cast of 13 and a crew of around 20.
The production was directed by Wm. E. Hay Secondary vice-principal Darren Fleischhacker, produced by Jessica Visser, and stage managed by Beka Taylor and Grace Baltimore.