About the Play:

The Omelet Murder Case is a murderous spoof in one-act by Tim Kelly. A far-out and very funny farce that takes a classic crime murder mystery and merges it with Shakespeare's Hamlet! The Omelet Murder Case is a double-barreled satire on the murder where crack detective "Shake Spear" tries to uncover who killed Hamlet's father. All the familiar characters from Shakespeare and his works are present (more or less) but the hilarious twists and turns of plot are not quite what the immortal bard had in mind.

The Omelet Murder Case re-hashes Hamlet as if it were written by a trashy, pulp fiction crime writer. As Tim Kelly describes: Imagine what would happen if the tragedy of Hamlet were played like a story in a trashy detective magazine! The bard would never be the same and neither would your audience. Shy on poetry but loaded with poetic license (and laughter) The Omelet Murder Case introduces Chicago's number one private investigator and hack writer, "Shake" Speare. Shake is noted for his juicy yarns: "Who Poisoned Juliet?" – "Don't Go In The Tower With Richard" – "Madman Macbeth Is A Lousy Host." With his faithful secretary Miss Marlowe he's summoned to the fabulous Elsinore Mansion, where things are, as Shake would say, "moiderous." The once-lovely Miss Ophelia has traded in her evening wrap for a straitjacket, the Stern sisters (Gilda and Rosa) are acting weird, and society queen Gertrude is all nerves because her flaky son is telling people that his father was done in by poison dropped in the ear (was it murder or wax buildup?). But it isn't until Shake arrives that things really get muddled. Gertrude's new husband, Claude, is downright rude, and son Hamlet is edging closer to the funny farm minute by minute. Shake's deductions are both awful and uproarious. Could the true murder weapon be those mysterious olives? The lukewarm Ovaltine? What has cable television to do with any of it? The solution, alas, leaves Shake with egg on his face, but Marlowe is determined to write up the case. She gets the detective's blessing, although he thinks a title like Hamlet will never sell.

The Omelet Murder Case is ideal for contest use or for any high school, college, or community theatre group looking for something amusing and "different." Running time is about thirty minutes. Sure to please audiences of all ages, the riotous characters are fun to play and the production aspects are extremely simple.

Cast: 5 female, 3 male

About the Playwright:

Tim Kelly (1931-1998) is often regarded as the most-published playwright in America, with over 300 titles to his credit under both his real name and at least four pseudonyms (Vera Morris, J. Moriarty, Robert Swift, Keith Jackson). Many of his plays, like Les Miserables, M*A*S*H and The Uninvited, are adaptations of novels, films. or television series, although he also wrote a host of parodies a well as original scripts and musical libretti. While his plays have been performed off-Broadway and by such companies as the Royal Court Rep, the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) and Seattle Rep, he is best known for writing for university, community and school theatre.