'Murder on the Nile'

After more than two seasons of focusing exclusively on comedy, the Bigfork Community Players stretch their reach this month with a murder mystery, Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Nile,” with six performances beginning Friday at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts.

As the story goes, Kay Ridgeway, reputedly the richest young woman in England, never wanted for anything. Until, that is, she met Simon Mostyn, the attractive but modestly successful former fiancé of her (now former) best friend Jacqueline de Severac. On a honeymoon cruise up the Nile, Kay (now Ridgeway-Mostyn) is surprised to find that her former best friend has inadvertently booked the same cruise, as has her uncle and guardian, the Canon Ambrose Pennefather. Life is a tangled web of mystery, but death can be murder.

OLIVIA CARETTE had not acted since sixth grade, but her dad Robert Carette said, “Let’s both go audition for this play.” And like that, she was cast as Kay Ridgeway-Mostyn and her father was cast as the ship’s captain.

According to Carette her character “Has it all and is used to getting her way. She’s perceived as bratty but is really smarter. So why did she marry Simon, who’s not the brightest bulb in the lamp? And poor and definitely not from the same world? Probably because she could take him away from Jackie. Which was reason enough.”

Larry Lefcourt directs the production.

“I love comedies,” he said. “But I directed two of them last year and this time I wanted to try something different. And Agatha Christie is a modern master of the mystery.”

Riley Hoveland is a product of the Bigfork Children’s Theater, but she has appeared several times previously with the Players. And she loves this play.

“It’s witty, it’s sharp, and it can put you on the very on the edge of your seat,” she said. Hoveland plays Christina, the attractive, young, generally quiet and reserved niece of the cranky Helen ffoliot-ffoulkes.

“I’m definitely like Christina,” Hoveland said. “But I’m rarely quiet and reserved.”

This is Tom Hicks’ second time onstage in a play. And it’s the second time he’s played a cleric. Starting his stage career as Father Drobney in “Don’t Drink the Water,” he’s continuing as Canon Ambrose Pennefather in “Murder on the Nile.”

Ruby Ruebenson plays William Smith, a rather conniving man of mystery.

“MURDER ON the Nile” will be presented at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts, 526 Electric Ave. in Bigfork. Performances are February 17, 18, 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. and on February 19 and 26 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, and $5 for children under 12. Tickets are available at Bigfork Drug, the Pocketstone Cafe, the Kalispell Grand Hotel, online at www.bigforkcommunityplayers.com and at the door.