There's been a 'Murder at the OK Corral' in Eureka

The Eureka Community Players open their annual Rendezvous Weekend Thursday, April 27, with the first of four performances of “Murder at the OK Corral.”

The show, created by Blair Graeme, runs through Sunday, April 30 at the Majestic Theater in downtown Eureka.

In the play, eccentric German director Hermina Von Kibbel (local actor Loree Campbell) drags the cast of the hokey hit TV western series “Days of the OK Corral” to a remote studio in the middle of the desert. Von Kibbel demands absolute realism to shoot an episode about the legendary Native American spirit known as The Rattler. The shooting begins and the script is awful, the acting hilarious — especially by the inept star, Hoyt (local actor Adrian Miller) — but a fired blank turns out to be not so blank, and soon Hermina lies dead. Or is she? Is it all part of her game of realism? Is she a victim of an irate cast member? Or was she the target of an ancient spirit hungry for vengeance? It’s fast-paced dialogue, colorful characters, tingling suspense and frantic action as the group desperately tries to solve the murder.

Directed by Andy Hanson, “Murder at the OK Corral” transports the audience to a small TV sound stage in the desert where the cast and crew are shooting a Western series. Hanson promises, “there will be laughs, a few gunfights and maybe a few times that you jump out of your seat.”

Performances Thursday through Saturday are at 7 p.m. while the Sunday matinée is at 3 p.m.

Tickets are available at the theater box office.