Comic murder mystery on Harstine Island

The Harstine Island Theatre Club stages the comic murder mystery "You Have the Right to Remain Dead" at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, and 7:30 p.m. July 5-6 and 2 p.m. July 7 at the Harstine Island Community Hall, 3371 E. Harstine Island Road N.

Admission is $10. Tickets are sold at the door, at Olympic Bakery on Pickering Road and Williams Gifts and Flowers in downtown Shelton. To get to the theater, take a left after driving off the bridge to the island and drive about 3 miles.

In the play written by Pat Cook, a murder occurs and everyone is a suspect, including the cast, the crew and members of the audience. The fabled "fourth wall" in theater comes down as the action bleeds into the audience.

In "You Have the Right to Remain Dead," narrator Harnell Chesterton visits a small community theater group staging a play set in the Deep South. The play's characters are all in an uproar because Big Daddy, the patriarch of the family, is about to change his will. Is he the target of a killer? Are his wife, son, daughter or daughter-in-law trying to kill him?

P.J. Hopkins is making her directorial debut with the group. An actress and singer since the age of 6, Hopkins moved to Mason County in 2001. She made her local theater debut as the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz" with what was then called Faith Acts and is now Connection Street Theatre in Shelton.

"It was great" she recalled of the experience. "I hadn't been on stage for a long time."

Her other roles with the group included a wicked nanny in "Mary Poppins and the sour kangaroo in "Seussical, the Musical."

"Can you see a trend?" she said with a laugh.

Community theater is "so important," Hopkins said. "It gets people out of themselves."

The cast features Mike Plomski as Harnell, Barb Hubbard as Blanche LaToure, Anita Chandler as Crazy Granny, Heidi Dunne as Officer Bainbridge, Diane Weed as Man 1/Savannah/Lois Jacobsen, Sheryl Fellman as Sweet Mama/Doris Turnbull, Amy Byykkonen as Hyacinth/Leigh Dorsett, Jack Dunne as Clete/Ajax Conroy, Kenny Latimer as Big Daddy/Arnold Turnbull, Sio Nuxoll as Earl/Steve Randall, Becca Byykkonen as Trudy Marsh and London Weed as a sycophant.

IF YOU GO

WHO: Harstine Island Theatre Club

WHAT: Comic murder mystery “You Have the Right to Remain Dead”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. June 29, July 5 and 6, 2 p.m. June 30 and July 7

WHERE: Harstine Island Community Hall, 3371 E. Harstine Island Road N.

ADMISSION: $10