The Finale….Rawhide….
Murder and Mayhem return to the Buff Club
“Bullets in the Bunkhouse Saloon”
By Julie Obermiller
The Buff Club Players took another step back into time with their second murder mystery event. The first, “Cashing Out at the Casino” was set in the roaring twenties, but the latest caper went all the way back to the Wild West. The zany cast of characters came from the imagination of Union Sun & Journal columnist Lynnemarie Scrivano Donner. In her second collaboration with the Buff Club Players, Donner and her cast put on a rowdy, sometimes bawdy, show at an old time saloon. The packed house on Young Street in the Falls tried to solve the mystery behind “Bullets at the Bunkhouse Saloon.”
Guests added to the atmosphere with cowboy hats and western dress, and the Buff Club Players were perfect parodies of our favorite television western characters. With Mistress Sue Ellen’s (played by Jackie Carbone) saloon in danger of foreclosure, the lusty, busty Sue Ellen is hoping she can come up with a way to keep it from falling into the hands of Brother Marcus (Marc Touma) and Sister Rosa Ree (Betty Scrivano). While Brother Marcus plans to buy the saloon to open his church to save the souls of the motley crew, Sister Rosa Ree is spending the church money on pretty trinkets and fancy hats.
It seems all is saved when Deputy Dude (Fred Wyrosdick) shows up with a bag of gold he’s stolen to help the saloon keeper he really loves. The trouble comes when they realize the money was taken from a notoriously bad river gang. Dude becomes the victim in this play, leaving the fate of the saloon up in the air as Sheriff Chuck Wagon (Jim McKeown) tries to get to the bottom of it. McKeown rides in on his horse, Day Tripper, to big applause, minus the dreadlocks he wore as the popular chef in the first play.
Red herrings and rubber chickens fly as the storylines unfold and guests try to sort out the characters’ relationships. Aside from specific points of information which each actor was supposed to divulge to the audience, the antics were largely adlibbed by the enthusiastic amateur cast. Armed with the cast list and the delivered clues, audience members tried to unravel the mystery and find the real killer.
Was the killer Sue Ellen or Brother Marcus, each wanting ownership of the saloon? Eddie Vendetti (Fred Abramitys) was Dude’s estranged brother, who chose to walk on the wrong side of the law. He’s a land baron and a thief but did he kill his brother? Did Vendetti’s daughters Tiny Tina (Lynne Hoover) and Nancy Needles (Debby Neal) want Uncle Dude dead? It was rumored that Nancy had killed before and tina was a crack shot. There was already one criminal in the local jail cell. Nicky Cannon, who killed the casino owner in the first play, yelled jibes at saloon customers from his cell. Did Nicky somehow shoot the Dude in the dark? Arthur the Cook (Al LaChance) was taken in by Mistress Sue Ellen’s dad years before and thought he would have gotten the saloon instead of her. Was he secretly cooking up a recipe to get it back?
Whiskey Pete (Pete Miosga) doesn’t say much but sees everything. What does he know? Doc Bob Quackster (Robert Van Kuren) tries to get saloon patrons interested in his new blood-letting service while he checks on the prisoners. Did he spill Dude’s bood? Jokester Billy Bull (Steve Cerifco) might lose his job as musical host of the saloon if it becomes a church, but would killing the Deputy save the saloon? One person who might know was Ginger the Gypsy (Mary Wilgosz), but you won’t get any answers from Ginger without gold coins or chickens as payment. Even Fat Sally, Deputy Dude’s prized pet cow (Eileen LaChance, Chris Pietrangeli) wandered around clueless.
Finding the silver gun that killed the Dude gets to be a problem when half the people in the saloon are packing heat, some in secret places. At one point, the crowd enthusiastically sang along to the classic song “Rawhide.” The ever-changing scene of the crime was the setting for a bunkhouse style meal including corn chips and bean dip, trail mix, hearty beer beef stew and beans, cornbread and strawberry shortcake. Serving was handled by sweet prairie flowers Gracie Lou, Betty Jane, Daisy Mae and Ellie Mae.
The play was written so that no cast member knew who committed the crime until the final reveal after the audience voted, although most of them secretly hope they get to be the killer. The event sold out again and plans are in the works for a third murder mystery dinner. Ideas started flowing for new characters every time the creative and fun-loving group got together to work on this one. The Buff Club Players, and their audience, are ready for more. Donner has authored magazine articles, writes The Towpath Partyline weekly in the Lockport US&J and has a Greater Niagara Newspaper blog at www.lynnemarieseveryday.wordpress.com.
