As we waited in the lobby of San Francisco’s Boxcar Theatre to take our seats for Clue, now through February 19, 2011, the house manager cheerfully informed us that the play we were about to see is best experienced after having watched the 1985 movie of the same name no less than five times. Further, and I’m paraphrasing here, but not much, it would help if we were drunk.
I think that’s actually pretty good advice, but not because this 2011 play based on the 1985 movie, which was based on the late-1940s board game (did I mention the action is set in 1954?), requires repetition and alcohol to be enjoyed. I haven’t seen Clue, the movie, since I watched it on the silver screen, and the other evening I was actually somewhat sober. Despite these limitations, I had a grand time.
The point of the preparatory speech, I think, is that Clue, as re-re-imagined by Peter Matthews and Nick A. Olivero, is a farce of a farce, a lark, an evening of theater only to the extent that it features actors, lighting, sound effects and the rest. Mostly it’s an engaging experiment to see if this quixotic gambit can be pulled off. Most of the time Matthews and Olivero succeed. And during those moments when their conceit falls flat? Well, a few ticks of the clock takes care of that.

The writer-directors, who also perform, are aided by the play’s set (Olivero gets credit for that, too) and seating that’s been customized for this production. The stage sits at the bottom of a square pit, which is ringed by a single row of seats built on top of the set’s walls, which means the audience is perched roughly 6-to-8 feet above the action. The floor of the stage resembles the game’s board, complete with squares that the actors must sometimes follow, step-by-step, rooms (the Lounge, the Ballroom, etc.) and props featured in both the board game (the Candlestick, the Leap Pipe, et al) and the movie.