Carmen Taylor Update

This Carmen Taylor.

Cool:

Fort Smith Little Theatre members are opening their 2011 season with a murder that's "light and easy," said one official.

The theater group will perform a two-hour version of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" at 8 p.m. Feb. 10-12 and Feb. 16-19, and at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at the theater, 401 N. Sixth St., and the popular whodunit will be light in nature and tone, said Paula Sharum, director of the play.

"We are playing this story with a very light hand," she said. "Agatha Christie likes a lot of things tongue-in-cheek - she walks right next door to the comedic side - and so we are playing this light. It's not dark, if a murder can ever be light and easy."

The story centers around Monkswell Manor, a recently converted guest house where Mollie (Melissa Vitale) and Giles Ralston (Matt Hutchinson) scurry about to prepare for visitors. Once a regal estate, Monkswell Manor is the setting where a murderer runs rampant.

The Ralstons' fear that a fierce blizzard will prevent the arrival of some of the house guests are eased temporarily when Christopher Wren (Zach Callahan) arrives. However, something odd about Wren, as well as the arrival of Major Metcalf (Ron Watson) and Mrs. Boyle (Carmen Taylor), runs the risk of changing the mood and possible safety inside the manor.

Mrs. Boyle is a bad person:

The audience learns just before she is murdered that Mrs. Boyle was the magistrate who sent three children to live with foster parents. The children were all abused and the youngest killed, but she disavows any responsibility for the tragedy.