Fall Comedy: “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”

Reported by Michael Nellis

NEWBERG, ORE. - The first play of the year at George Fox University was the musical comedy “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” Based on a 1907 novel by Roy Horniman, the Tony-winning show opened at GFU on Oct. 17 and ran for eight showings.

The play focuses on Monty Navarro, a poor orphan who learns he is ninth in line to the dukedom of the D’Ysquith family and decides to murder everyone else in the line to claim the title. The play deftly maneuvers the audience through a whirlwind of intrigue as the public catches on to the string of deaths. The “love” portion of the play’s title unfolds through Monty’s dilemma of choosing between two women, one who previously spurned him and the other a D’Ysquith.

Rhett Luedtke, the play’s director, pointed out how the play makes us question both our laughter and our sympathies.

“When I caught myself rooting for Monty the first time I read this play, I had to pause and ask myself why,” Luedtke said. “Why did I root for someone to kill eight people, and why didn’t I care?” Monty is an antihero who doesn’t follow conventional morality, and that not only makes his character intriguing but also an ever-popular underdog.

The subject matter of the play creates an interesting environment for the actors. “There’s a lot in this play that is uncomfortable,” Luedtke said, “and if your actors are apologizing for what’s uncomfortable, then the social critique in the play won’t be strong.” Luedtke hopes that the contrast between GFU’s values and the subject matter will make audiences think. “If a handful of our folks go and say, ‘Why did I feel uncomfortable?’ then we have self-reflection happening in the community,” he said. “At that point, theater is doing its best work.”

Part of the play’s distinct allure is its different format, dominated by light-hearted musical numbers. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a musical comedy,” Luedtke said. “This one’s different in that it carries a sense of cynicism. Cynicism and satire tend to be hard for people of faith in general.”

Luedtke called upon Shakespeare’s allusion to theater as a mirror. “What are we reflecting back to ourselves, when we tell a story? Are we supporting our own set of morals and assumptions and biases about the world? Are we challenging those?”

The play also features interesting social commentary on the dynamic between the rich and the poor. “The D’Ysquith family are drawn as two-dimensional rich folks, so is their laughter in the play about our secret resentment of the wealthy?” Luedtke said. More importantly, does that resentment succeed in cloaking our disapproval of murder?

Luedtke looked back on his 15+ years at George Fox and the 30+ productions he has directed here. “We might not have been able to do this comedy in 2003, but we’re able to do it in 2019,” he stated. “If we ‘historify’ our contemporary issues of 2019 and see them through the lens of the 1910’s, then we can see them objectively, as opposed to subjectively.”

Since his arrival, “George Fox as a whole is more open to the arts on campus, and the role of the arts to both entertain and ask questions,” Luedtke said. He looks forward to next semester’s production of “The Shakers of Mount Lebanon Will Hold a Peace Conference This Month,” which will broach the audience’s views on more religious aspects of morality.