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The Little Off the Square Theatre will be bringing in some last-minute laughs before 2007 ends with its presentation of “Agatha Twistie’s Murder on the Oreo Express” on Saturday.
Jesse Nichols, L.O.S.T. founder, said his newest script will poke fun at a certain Belgian detective and a popular crime scene show.
“We brought in the chief protagonist in the book, Hercule Poirot,” Nichols said. “I thought it would be interesting to throw in a little CSI in this as well.”
About six months ago, Nichols said he read the Agatha Christie book, “Murder on the Orient Express.”
“I just happened to read the book and I thought I could spoof it,” Nichols said. “She’s [Christie] so dry in her writing and she left herself open for someone to spoof it. When I read the book, I thought she could use some lightening up.”
Nichols said he likes witty and humorous writing and called Christie’s work “too serious” for him.
For this show, Nichols decided to make his murder mystery a little different from his past murder mysteries.
“This is a fun thing. Usually, I write them a little risqu/, but this one is family friendly,” Nichols said. “This one is just strictly funny.”
“Agatha Twistie’s Murder on the Oreo Express,” which has a cast of eight, took Nichols a short time to complete.
“It actually took 10 hours to write,” Nichols said. “There are a lot of ideas that float around in my head and sometimes I pluck them out and write a play about them. I had been toying with the idea of doing something on Agatha Christie for quite a while.”
Nichols will also don his actor’s hat and play a part in his own murder mystery.
“I’m doing the part of Gil Greesum, the rip-off of Gil Grissom,” Nichols said. “If there’s a special character I want to do, I’ll write myself a part. I make a fool of myself, but they [audience] seem to be getting a kick out of that.”
The murder mysteries usually have good turnouts, although Nichols said there are still seats available for “Agatha Twistie’s Murder on the Oreo Express.”
“We need about 50 people to be there but now we’re way down,” Nichols said.
Nichols said he doesn’t know what he will be doing for his next murder mystery, but ideas are always going around in his head.
“I have no idea what might be next but I always take notes,” Nichols said.
“Agatha Twistie’s Murder on the Oreo Express” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at El Chico’s, 1222 North Central Expressway.
Tickets cost $39.50 per person and can be purchased by calling 972-562-4725 or e-mailing Jesse Nichols at lostmurder@yahoo.com.
Contact staff writer Stefanie White at swhite@acnpapers.com. To post comments online, access this story at www.scntx.com.
