PROBABLY WASN’T THE BUTLER. To be
staged at UW-Eau Claire this month,
I Bet It Was the Butler is your classic
tale of murder and whodunit-ness.

Never ones to shy away from the absurd and hilarious, the UWEC Players appropriately stage their newest production, I Bet It Was the Butler, this January.

The classic whodunit-type mystery circles around the death of Mr. Worthington, murdered on his deathbed. Impatiently awaiting news of her husband’s death for months, Mrs. Worthington is eager to discover the contents of his will, hopeful for an impending fortune. Discovering not time but homicide has finally finished off her wealthy husband, Mrs. Worthington hires an investigator to solve the crime. Only four other people are in the house with Mrs. Worthington at the time of the murder: their deaf, dementia-fighting housemaid, Mr. Worthington’s personal nurse, his trusty lawyer, and the creepy butler. 

The play is the debut of student playwright Alex Brandt, with Katie Gerarden and Tyler Edmonson acting as directors, in a one-act murder mystery focusing on elements of farce and physical comedy new to the Players.

“Something we are really trying to push about this show is that it will be a very different experience than what we have done before,” said Players president Abbey Lowenstein. “The Players as a group like to challenge ourselves and like to challenge the community to new forms of art.” 

With the housemaid inadvertently throwing the sleazy detective off the trail and the love-lust lawyer falling deeper into a distracting and unreciprocated love triangle, through their many hijinks and shenanigans the whole colorful cast will keep audiences guessing, “Who killed Mr. Worthington?”

I Bet It Was the Butler • Jan. 20-22 and 27-28 • Kjer Theatre, Haas Fine Arts, UWEC campus • 7:30pm all dates, 1:30pm on Jan. 28 only • $7 general, $5 students