Murder nobody wrote

Sam Houston State University’s summer repertory program finished off summer one with their biggest production yet, Murder By Mistake by John Kaasik, on June 27 and 28 in the Performing Arts Center.

The story took the audience through several pranks that lead to life altering problems and gut wrenching laughter.

All of the acting was overly exaggerated and the set, although still simple, had the most pieces out of the summer repertory’s four plays.

The window allowed for interactions all over the stage and was also the main point of all the pranks.

The character that stole the show was Kyle, played by Zane Thrift. Kyle went through every emotion possible in a matter of two hours. He also used every inch of the stage to his advantage.

Thrift went above and beyond portraying the main character. In the scene where he accidentally killed his friend, Mike played by Camry Selden, Thrift kept the audience laughing as he struggled to hide Mike’s body.

The body hiding scene stood out the most because a dummy was not used for Mike’s body so Selden had to be dragged around the stager by Thrift and was even flipped over himself at one point. During this whole scene neither Thrift nor Selden broke character even though some of the ways Kyle hid Mike were ridiculous.

Thrift was so committed to Kyle’s character that he sweated through three t-shirts by the end of the play.

Brian Burke, junior public relations major, came to support his friend Thrift.

“I loved it,” Burke said, “I thought it was really good.”  

Murder By Mistake had it all, the nosy neighbor, over bearing wife, cheating husband, nervous friend, pranks, and comedy. The play kept the audience laughing the whole time.

The next play, Cockeyed, will start off summer repertory two on July 25 at 8 p.m. in the PAC. Tickets are 5$ and can be purchased by calling the PAC box office at (936) 294-2339.