Dinner. Madness. Murder.

Three words that summarize the plot of this year’s fall play.

Set in Saltcreek in Cornwall, England, Towards Zero is a mystery/thriller that will keep the audience on edge until the final scene.

On Oct. 26 and 28 Lady Tressilian’s house on the beach, named Gull’s Point, will take over the stage of the Central Campus PAC.

Originally published as a novel in 1944 by Agatha Christie, Towards Zero was adapted into a playwright in 1956 with a slightly differing plot line. In this version, Lady Tressilian (played by Abby Uphoff, junior) invites Neville Strange (Noah Marvo, junior), a world-renowned tennis star, for an annual dinner party at her house. Strangely enough, Neville brings along not only his current wife, Kay (McKenzie Frost, junior), but also his estranged ex, Audrey (Hannah Babyak, junior).

When Lady Tressilian’s turns up dead the next morning bludgeoned, local law enforcement is on the case for the remainder of the show.

“We always work very hard and try our absolute best to make the show the best it can be” Aiden Corden, junior playing Latimer, Kay’s close friend, said. “What we want to do in the end is to be able to take the audience on the journey that we have created.”

Ms. Christina Duris, 2012 MCHS graduate, also decided to return this year after a successful run of her first official directing job during last year’s fall play, Almost, Maine. She told the PPC that she learned may valuable lessons and was more than prepared to apply them this time around.

“I enjoy the way that she directs us to always think about trying to perform a line in a different manner than we had originally interpreted it,” Frost, new to fall play, said. “I think that this is really what allows us to grow as performers.”

A personal change made by Duris at the beginning of the season included adapting the script to include 13 characters rather than the original 11 in order to give more students the opportunity to participate in the show. These characters include an additional officer and a doctor to the plotline, but were intended to be implemented seamlessly to the cast.

Crew members began to come to rehearsals on Oct. 2 to prepare their part of the show and set construction for the scene in which the whole story takes place began during the first weekend of September.

“I think that everyone has grown into their roles very well and got a feeling for their characters early on,” Frost said.

Tickets will go on sale beginning Oct. 16 on www.mchs.revtrak.net  . Adult tickets are $10 and student/senior tickets are $8.

On Saturday, Oct. 28, there will be a 2 p.m. show and a 7 p.m. show. 

So what happens when there is a murderer running amok in a house, a man invites both his current spouse and ex-wife to a dinner party, and cops crash the whole thing? Take a journey to Gull’s Point to find out.

This story originally appeared in the Oct. 11 print issue of the PPC. It has been updated to reflect changes in performances times.