Olympia Little Theatre launches its return with an Agatha Christie murder mystery

Olympia Little Theatre, which last welcomed audiences in February 2020, is back with Agatha Christie’s “Go Back for Murder,” opening Friday, Oct. 8.

Like theaters across the country, Olympia’s oldest theater company is requiring its audience to provide proof of vaccination and to wear masks. All performers are vaccinated, too, and the only refreshment available is water — served with a bendy straw so audience members won’t have to remove their masks to drink.

Much of the season is focused on light fare, including “Go Back,” two comic mysteries and the Jane Austen-inspired “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley.”

The season also includes two locally written shows: the historical drama “The Originals,” by Tamara Keeton and Katherine Kelly, and the romantic comedy “Life Is Complicated,” by Kendra Malm, the theater’s artistic manager.

“It’s an amalgamation of shows we’d planned for the past two seasons,” Malm said. “When COVID started closing everything, we were halfway into the 2019-2020 season, and we were also in the middle of choosing the next season.”

“Go Back,” originally set to open in June 2020, felt like the right choice for the theater’s first play in 20 months.

“It’s good for the theater to open with a crowd-pleasing good seller,” said Toni Holm, who’s co-directing with Allison Gerst.

“It’s a fun night out after such a long isolation,” Gerst added.

The Christie mystery, set in the 1950s and the 1960s, involves a young woman’s search for the truth about her father’s death.

Tessa Beck Fey plays both the searching daughter and the mother who was imprisoned for the murder.

Also in the cast are Randall Graham, Ed Thorpe, Joe Shay, Steve Saxton, Jim Charleston, Kaylee Hawkins, Sydney Keith, Amy Neal, Rufus Crane and Malm, who plays Mrs. Williams, a starchy governess.

“It’s a fun part,” Malm told The Olympian. “She’s got some great lines.”

“We had a very large turnout for auditions,” Holm said. “People really wanted to get back to acting.”

Malm certainly did. “It feels wonderful to be back in the theater, though it’s hard getting back in the swing of things,” she said.

“It took everybody a while to warm up,” Holm agreed. “It was so odd to interact with other people. There are a few places in the play where people touch each other and it took everybody a while to get comfortable with that.”

She said the theater got through the long closure with relative ease thanks to late artistic manager Kathryn Beall, who was a mainstay of the company for two decades before her death in 2017.

“Many years ago, when the avian flu was threatening, Kathryn said we should start saving money in an emergency fund,” Holm said. “We pretty much exhausted our emergency fund, but we were able to pay our bills. We were able to pay our one staff person and our janitor during the time that we were closed. I consider that a victory.”

Olympia Little Theatre’s 2020-2021 season

• What: Olympia’s oldest live theater is beginning again after a 20-month pandemic pause.
• When: Evening shows at 7:25 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and matinees at 1:55 p.m. Sundays
• Where: Olympia Little Theatre, 1925 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia
• Tickets: $9-$15
• Season tickets: Season subscribers who buy tickets to at least five plays save $2 per ticket.
• More information: 360-786-9484, http://olympialittletheater.org

The shows

“Go Back for Murder” (Oct. 8-24), by Agatha Christie, tells the story of a woman attempting to solve the mystery of her father’s death 15 years earlier.

“The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley” (Dec. 3-19) is, like the theater’s 2019 production of “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley,” a sequel to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”

“Clue: On Stage” (Jan. 21-Feb. 6) is a comic mystery based on the classic board game and the 1985 film.

“The Bold, the Young and the Murdered” (March 4-20), originally scheduled for March 2020, mixes mystery with farce.

“The Originals” (April 22-May 8), by Tamara Keeton and Katherine Kelly of Olympia, tells the true story of the female pilots who served during World War II.

“Falling” (June 10-26), about an autistic young man and his family, explores the challenges of loving someone who is difficult to love.

“Life Is Complicated” (July 15-31), written and directed by Olympia Little Theatre artistic manager Kendra Malm, is a romantic comedy inspired by Malm’s experiences as a transgender woman.

This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.