The Undergraduate Theater Collective is Brandeis University’s number-one destination for student theater. Giving opportunities for a more unfiltered and hands-on stage experience, UTC is a great outlet for all members of the undergraduate student body who may want to dabble in a theater environment. Their first show of this semester was “Clue: On Stage” — a reimagining of the classic board game as a full theatrical production. There’s a lot to unpack about the play, so I will start with the negatives, since for me, there weren’t many. One slight problem I had was with the script. This play is basically only comedy and they won’t let you forget it. The jokes fly at you at the quick pace of about eight to ten a minute, and most of them are hit or miss. However, this never manifested into a real annoyance to me and although some jokes left a bad taste in my mouth, they were soon followed by a new bit that got a big laugh out of me. After about 30 minutes, I fully settled into the style of the play. While plot may be secondary in this production, it’s important to remember that fun is the primary goal. Once I realized that, I thoroughly enjoyed the shenanigans. 

At the center of the play are some high-energy performances. A majority of the cast is on stage for the entirety of the play, including the six guests, who we all know and love for their color-themed names, and the butler of the mystery-shrouded mansion they’ve all arrived at: Wadsworth. The house’s head servant and only Brit was presented by Luke Benanav ’29, who not only kept up an accent for the tenure of the play, but also ran probably a full two miles over the course of the production. His performance was definitely the catalyst of the play and while he didn’t get as many comedic bits as his castmates, he did have a fun monologue towards the end of the play that had me giggling the whole way through.

As for the guests-turned-suspects, each one of them was delightfully idiotic and full of personality. John Henry Holcomb ’27 played the pompous and not-so-professional Professor Plum with a lot of extra flair and emotion. With some excellent comedic pacing and vibrant facial expressions, Holcomb always held the stage with his one-liners. Casadie Parent ’27 played the wicked Mrs. White, who is the only character not dressed as their name, instead sporting a frightening black gown. They also held the stage with one-liners, but her comments presented a lot more violence than Plum’s sarcasm. Next, there was the unexpected dynamic duo, Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlet, played by Xavián Plasencia ’28 and Sean Walker ’28. Plasencia and Walker played total opposites, Plasencia a moronic and bumbling Mustard and Walker a clever and suave Scarlet, but the characters seemed to develop a delightfully strange friendship by the end of the play. The ensemble also gave vibrant and varied performances, with their best kerfuffle happening at the very end of the play in a way that had me and others in the audience rolling. Alexandra Brichkov ’29, who played Mrs. Peacock, was a perfect mix of chatty, annoying and over the top. Brichkov made every new twist and turn in the story just a little more ridiculous and her constant drinking after insisting she doesn’t touch alcohol was probably the best continuing gag.

There’s one actor who I want to take special note of: Rowan Scasselatti ’26, who played Mr. Green. Scasselatti was neurotic and way too nervous to stick up for himself, and he gave a fantastic physical performance that was on the level of any clown or Commedia performance. The biggest laugh of the night for me came from Scasselatti as he delivered the last line of the show. I should also note that the show I was able to see was a dress rehearsal and I was warned by the director, Hannah “Phoenix” Feldman ’27, that some of the technical aspects could be unpolished at that point in their process. Despite that, there were quite a few effects that surprised me and I thought fit the show very well, such as the lights changing to match the color of whichever character was taking center stage. Overall the UTC’s production of “Clue” gave many laughs, with a good dose of intrigue.