Chit-Chat: Director involves audience to determine culprit in play

Fox Valley lawyer by day, Bernie Weiler by night directs his second show at Steel Beam Theatre in St. Charles. A secret ballot at intermission allows theater-goers to decide whodunit in the Alan Ayckbourn comic mystery “It Could Be Any One of Us,” which opens this month.

Director Bernie Weiler leads a read-through of the comic mystery “It Could Be Any One of Us” at the professional Steel Beam Theatre in St. Charles. STAFF  PHOTO BY STEVE BITTINGER

What’s your theater background?
My undergraduate degree is in theater. I’ve always stayed involved in theater in one way or another. I have done more writing and directing than acting.

Is the show a parody of the murder-mystery-at-the-manor genre?
I think so. You can’t take it too seriously, but it’s also written in a way that you have to care about the characters. All well-written drama teaches you something about life, and this doesn’t leave any of that out. By the same token, it does poke fun at itself. It has a very strong comedic tone to it. It’s very fast-paced and it’s a lot of fun ... with a very imaginative story and characters.

What can you tell us about the plot?
It involves a murder mystery in an English manor that has been left to the three children of a businessman father and an artistic mother who tried to create an artist colony of the three children, with various degrees of success. They are living in this crumbling estate and getting on each other’s nerves. The plot centers on the announced plan of the oldest sibling to leave the entire estate to a person who had a passing connection with the family many years before — and so then things begin to happen. And as the title implies, it could be any one of the characters, and the audience does get the opportunity at intermission to elect the perpetrator.

Talk about your actors.
At Steel Beam, (Artistic Director) Donna Steele has set the bar pretty high for the quality of the productions, so I have benefited by being able to send out a casting call and finding that it is answered by people interested in working at the Steel Beam because they know about the degree to which the theater cares about the quality of the production. It has a great respect for actors, and so I was very pleased with the quality of the (actors who) responded. The script was written by a master playwright, who trusts actors to be able to get it right, and has fashioned the script in a way that permits them to do so. It’s going to be fun and entertaining and funny.

WATCH THE PLAY

WHAT Steel Beam Theatre presents Alan Ayckbourn’s comic mystery “It Could Be Any One of Us”
WHEN 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, Feb. 26 through March 21
WHERE 111 W. Main St., St. Charles; (630) 587-8521; www.steelbeamtheatre.com
HOW MUCH $25, $23 for students and seniors and $22 for groups of 10 or more