Murders in the Rue Morgue

About

Take equal parts Edgar Allan Poe, and H.G. Wells, a dash of Frankenstein, and throw in some popcorn (literally), and you have a recipe for a “super shocker” of a play. It's 1890 in Paris, and bodies are starting to surface in the River Seine. Auguste Dupin (an artfully disheveled Matthew Allis) and Professor Henri (Bill Otstott) are trying to solve the mystery accompanied by their lady friends Camille L’Espanay (Shannon Rasmussen), and Miniette Roux (a rousing and fetching Lauren Hearn as a last minute replacement for Valerie R. Horna).  Dr. Moreau (Patrick H. Douglass) has been conducting forbidden experiments on the women of The Left Bank aided by his accomplice, Janos (Caleb Ouku), and his reluctant man-orangutan creation, Bongo (Matthew Stepanek).  Moreau disposes of the bodies as failed subjects for his dream of human/animal hybrids. Also on the case and representing the gendarmerie are the bumbling, crossword-obsessed Prefect Barnard (Michael Murray channeling his best French Columbo) and his subordinate, the female in disguise, Isadora Muset (Allegra Denes).