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Hillbilly Massacre benefits regional children
Guests and visitors to Cranbrook’s Heritage Inn on the evening of Oct. 15 were likely wondering what kind of hayseed community they’d arrived in.
The main ballroom was filled with hillbillies, hayseeds, red necks and deep southern belles, all participating in the spirit of a Kootenay Child Development Centre fundraiser.
The hillbilly theme flowed in conjunction with the dinner theatre performance of Dixie Diver and the Hillbilly Massacre, performed by Stab in the Dark Productions.
Performing around and sometimes at the tables occupied by the audience, the performing troupe ably played out a murder mystery, with the audience urged to solve the crime they witness, in part.
The plot revolved around a rising country music starlet, Dixie Driver, the belle of Yahk, who is growing beyond her band, the Hillbillies. And the intrigue mounts as dueling agents vie to sign Dixie to their labels.
Her brother Dave wants them to become the next “Donnie and Marie,” an idea that repulses Dixie, and to make matters worse, fellow band mate Dick seizes that point in time to express his devout adoration for the starlet.
Unfortunately for the bad luck Dick, Dixie confesses that she and band mate Dan Dawson, a scurrilous back alley dog, have recently married.
Meanwhile, current manager Belle Buford, working for Good Ole Boys Records, is expecting Dixie and the band to re-sign her, when in bursts Magnolia Randall, a former flame of Dan Dawson’s who has arrived to offer Dixie a three movie deal in Hollywood.
Traversing the edge of this slow boiling mess are Bubba McCoy, the band’s security woman, and Sue Ellen Frupp, Dixie’s personal assistant who also has a thing for dangerous Dan. Meanwhile, the hard edged Bubba’s got a thing for mousy Sue Ellen.
Naturally, this leads to murder, and then another murder, with clues being presented along the way for the audience.
By the time desert was served, the mystery was being solved by some in the audience.
The evening was a unique and genuinely fun one, with wonderful audience participation, including a hilarious ‘Willie and Julio” karaoke performance by two randomly selected gents, who ended up tacking stitches in everyone’s sides.
The magnificent cast who nailed down the Susan Haley/Haley Productions’ Murder Mystery were: Lisa Aasebo, Amanda Ball, Kimberley Davidson, Michael Grossman, Cheryl Kelly, Drew MC and Dean Nicholson. Ball directed the show, while Rusty Gahr provided the sound engineering.
Providing an authentic atmosphere in the Main Ballroom to start the evening were fiddle and guitar duo Gus MacDonald and William Nicholson.
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
