THEATER REVIEW : Dying for a Clue : Unraveling the Twists and Layers of Mystery Is a Pleasing Puzzle in ‘The Business of Murder’

Murder is rarely as complicated in real life as it is on stage and in films, where it can get very involved and baroque in its labyrinthine curlicues and false flourishes of discovery.

Playwright Richard Harris takes “The Business of Murder” to the deed’s greatest intricacy, with several expositions (all false) and several solutions (also false) until the last-minute twist that makes the many previous twists logical.

In the tightly wound production at Long Beach Playhouse’s Studio Theatre, director John Ross Clark not only keeps the rather static action interesting, but also manages to cloak the red herrings efficiently via his capable cast of three. The one thing he hasn’t been able to do is give his actors any of the subtext that would make the drama even more fascinating.

The intriguing play is a chamber mystery involving a widower named Stone, who goes to a police inspector named Hallett with a story that Stone’s son is in trouble, having dealt drugs and run afoul of some bad men. Meanwhile, Stone also encounters a television writer named Dee, who has (illogically) agreed to meet Stone’s wife to discuss her rejection of a mystery script the wife wrote.

As we soon find out, there is no son and there is no wife. But that’s only the beginning of the deceit.

Stone has other, more nefarious, tricks in store for Hallett and Dee. But to divulge them would do both playwright and audiences a disservice. Stone’s game is afoot, and it’s a fascinating conceit of a game at that.

*

Clark’s touch is handy. He knows when to speed things up and when to let them be leisurely. Stone’s gathering of evidence--coats, hats, knives--is not rushed, which adds to the cloudiness and gives insight into the workings of the character’s mind.

The cast may tend toward surface performances, but this is not a psychological thriller. It’s a puzzle, and they get the main points across.

Michael Cahill, as Hallett, digs deepest into his role as what Dee calls a “tame cop.” There’s a patient, gentle quality that Cahill uses well to hide the tough cop underneath, who only emerges late in the game. As Dee, Paulette Kendall easily covers the oddness of a TV professional willing to visit the author of a rejected script, but waffles between bravado and terror without successfully negotiating her transitions.

Steve Landis is the mysterious Stone, and both he and his director miss the added camouflage Stone might have were he not to telegraph his oddness so early on. It’s a forceful performance, but early fireworks don’t leave Landis anywhere to go in later volatile scenes that require energy already spent.

Designer John H. Nokes’ pasted-together apartment setting looks very much like a stage set, which it shouldn’t, and his flat lighting shows little invention.

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* “The Business of Murder,” Studio Theatre, Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends Saturday. $10. (310) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.

Michael Cahill: Hallett

Steve Landis: Stone

Paulette Kendall: Dee

A Long Beach Playhouse production of Richard Harris’ mystery. Directed by John Ross Clark. Scenic/lighting design: John H. Nokes. Stage manager: Jamie Stein.