As high-society party guests toast the new year at a posh London mansion, a man lies dead at the dinner table, his life snuffed out just minutes shy of the 1970s, and anyone in attendance could have done the snuffing. Sounds like a case for famed French inspector Jacques Hughes, except for one little problem: He's the one face down in the sauce.
A DEATH IN GRAVY is a farcical, single-set, two-act comic whodunnit that both pays homage to and satirizes Agatha Christie: Everyone’s a suspect and anyone’s a sleuth. Who will step up to solve Jacques’ murder in his absence? And who killed “the last of the great French detectives”? Was it the gravy magnate? The high-society dowager? The indolent aspiring-actor son? The movie director? The right-hand man? The best-selling author? The loyal servant? The mischievous chef? The handsome accountant? Or perhaps all of the above?
Keywords: comedy, farce, whodunnit, mystery, gravy, female characters, whodunit, dark comedy, Agatha Christie
Genre: Dark Comedy, Mystery
Acts: 2
Run time: 90 minutes
Suitable for students 10+
Cast size: 9 actors
Male roles: 5
Female roles: 4
CHARACTERS
- CAMILLE: 20s-40s F, chef, French
- PEMBERTON: 20s-40s M, butler, British
- GERTRUDE GOLDFARB: 60s F, mother, business magnate, heiress to the “Gertie’s Good Gravy” fortune, British
- LADY LESLEY LESLIE: 60s F, friend of GERTIE’s, British
- GUILLERMO GOLDFARB JR.: 22 M, son of GERTIE, aspiring actor, British
- NIGEL THROCKMORTON: 30s M, GERTIE’s financial advisor, British
- JOHN SANDHURST: 40s M, assistant to detective Jacques Hughes, former Royal Navy lieutenant, British
- KITTY CARDIGAN: 30s-40s F, journalist, chronicler of detective Jacques Hughes’ exploits, British
- BENJY GOODBUTTER-SMYTHE: 50s M, film director, British