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Butler Did It, The

  • Tim Kelly
  • Full Length Play, Mystery/Thriller, Farce, Comedy, Parody/Spoof, Present Day
  • 5M, 5F
  • ISBN: 9780874409796

This comedy parodies every English mystery play ever written: but it has a decidedly American flair...

  • Full Length Play
  • Mystery/Thriller, Farce, Comedy, Parody/Spoof
  • 75 minutes

  • Time Period: Present Day
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult, Senior

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, College Theatre / Student, Professional Theatre
This comedy parodies every English mystery play ever written: but it has a decidedly American flair.

Miss Maple, a dowager with a reputation for "clever" weekend parties, invites a group of detective writers to eerie Ravenswood Manor on Turkey Island where they are to impersonate their fictional characters. The hostess has arranged all sorts of amusing incidents: a mysterious voice on the radio, a menacing face at the window, a mad killer on the loose. Who is that body in the wine cellar anyway? Why do little figurines keep toppling from the mantle?

Then a real murder takes place, and Miss Maple is outraged. She offers an immense reward to the "detective"? who can bring the killer to justice. And what an assortment of zany would-be sleuths! When they're not busy tripping over clues, they trip over each other! Laughs collide with thrills, and the climax is a real seat-grabber as the true killer is unmasked, and almost everyone turns out to be someone else!

Can be played as a pure farce, or as humorous satire.

REVIEWS:

"Successfully interweaves all the classic elements with an imaginative approach...a stylish cross between Ten Little Indians and The Cat and The Canary... Great fun and strictly for laughs..."

 Green Sheet, Sun Valley, CA

"Kelly knows how to write a spiney mystery with a generous injection of wild humor... as good as any dramatic representation of an Agatha Christie or an Earl Stanley Gardner title would be on stage."

 Arizona Journal

  • Casting: 5M, 5F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast

  • HAVERSHAM - a young housemaid, an ex-convict.
    RITA - a social secretary.
    MISS MAPLE - a well-known society hostess.
    FATHER WHITE - a mystery writer.
    CHANDLER MARLOWE - another.
    LOUIE FAN - another.
    RICK - another.
    LAURA - another.
    PETER FLIMSEY - another.
    CHARITY - another.
    MABEL DUPRE - an adventuress.
    PHARAOH LINK - a San Francisco police detective.
  • Name Price
    The Butler Did It Script Order Now

    This comedy parodies every English mystery play ever written: but it has a decidedly American flair. Miss Maple, a dowager with a reputation for "clever" weekend parties, invites a group of detective writers to eerie Ravenswood Manor on Turkey Island where they are to impersonate their fictional characters. The hostess has arranged all sorts of amusing incidents: a mysterious voice on the radio, a menacing face at the window, a mad killer on the loose. Who is that body in the wine cellar anyway? Why do little figurines keep toppling from the mantle? Then a real murder takes place, and Miss Maple is outraged. She offers an immense reward to the "detective"? who can bring the killer to justice. And what an assortment of zany would-be sleuths! When they're not busy tripping over clues, they trip over each other! Laughs collide with thrills, and the climax is a real seat-grabber as the true killer is unmasked, and almost everyone turns out to be someone else! Can be played as a pure farce, or as humorous satire.

    "Successfully interweaves all the classic elements with an imaginative approach...a stylish cross between Ten Little Indians and The Cat and The Canary...Great fun and strictly for laughs..." - Green Sheet, Sun Valley, CA

    "Kelly knows how to write a spiney mystery with a generous injection of wild humor...as good as any dramatic representation of an Agatha Christie or an Earl Stanley Gardner title would be on stage." - Arizona Journal

    $24.95