Much Ado About Murder

The ARTx3 Campus will present the mystery-comedy “Much Ado About Murder” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24, and Sunday, Oct. 25, in the Adam B. Robinson Jr. Black Box Theater at ART WORKS on Main, 627 S. Main St.

Audience interaction is built into a plot filled with suspicious characters, dark humor and plenty of twists. Rich but rotten Carlton Larraby enjoys punctuating his family’s lives with macabre little surprises. His latest joke is a Halloween party where everyone arrives dressed as a Shakespearean character. The bored guests wait impatiently for their host to appear, unaware that he has been gruesomely bludgeoned to death in his study. A sinister master of ceremonies, Mr. Hawker, reveals what happened through a series of flashbacks depicting the events surrounding the murder. Little by little, as the audience gets to know the people of the drama, they begin to suspect the identity of the murderer ... only to discover they’re wrong.

Jonathan R. Hoover directs, Briar Thompson assistant directs and KC Rowland stage manages. The play is written by Pat Cook. The Ben J. Altheimer Charitable Foundation sponsors the production.

Tickets are $18 and may be purchased at artx3.org/all-events/much-ado-about-murder, by calling (870) 536-3375, or in person. For more information, contact Bethany Gere, theater manager, at bgere@artx3.org or call (870) 536-3375.