2 weeks Ago By Ben Waldman
Near the end of their 20-stop tour across Manitoba this winter, the cast and crew of came to blows on a swinging suspension bridge in Souris. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * Near the end of their 20-stop tour across Manitoba this winter, the cast and crew of came to blows on a swinging suspension bridge in Souris. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Near the end of their 20-stop tour across Manitoba this winter, the cast and crew of came to blows on a swinging suspension bridge in Souris.
“We fought each other with pool noodles,” says Duncan Cox, who stars with Melanie Whyte in the deadly musical two-hander, which sees Whyte playing 10 different characters and finds both actors playing piano. A lengthy road trip can put a strain on even the strongest relationships, but Cox, Whyte and the four-person crew of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s most recent regional touring production got along swimmingly: the noodle duel was initiated by stage manager Sadie Wannamaker as a silly diversion. Dylan Hewlett Duncan Cox and Melanie Whyte are on the hunt of a killer in the latest RMTC whodunnit.
Nobody was hurt, says Cox. That’s not the case in , the latest production ( and next year’s in a string of whodunits booked by artistic director Kelly Thornton. Written by Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian, who describes the piece as a “vaudeville-style love letter to old movie comedies, Agatha Christie mysteries and surrealism,” the musical’s action ensues following the death of renowned author Arthur Whitney.
This production, opening tonight and directed by Chase Winnicky, sets Cox, as aspiring detective Marcus Moscowitz, and Whyte in a zany whirlwind of investigation. Both actors are in the midst of enviably busy work periods. Cox headlined Shakespeare in the Ruins’ touring production of (which he co-wrote with Andrew Davidon) before appearing in RMTC’s , and will next appear in Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s staging of This fall, he and co-writer/co-star Sharon Bajer will reprise their vampire musical in a Rainbow Stage presentation at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain.
Dylan Hewlett Melanie Whyte portrays 10 different characters in the latest RMTC whodunnit. Whyte, who has acted professionally in Winnipeg since 1998, appeared — with both Cox and Winnicky — in last year’s Manitoba Theatre for Young People production of , starred in at Prairie Theatre Exchange and appeared in supporting roles in and (both staged by RMTC). Despite that dizzying pace, both actors say tested their capacity as actors, especially when considering the fact that as piano-playing triple threats, they’re required to provide Kinosian’s rollicking score and to bring life to Blair’s perspective-shifting lyrics.
During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. Cox, whose primary instrument is the acoustic guitar, has played piano before onstage in a 2019 fringe production (and slept in one as the vampire Razvan in ), while Whyte, who has a music degree and teaches singing, played a few bars in . But called for the actors to do a lot more from the bench.
“Piano adds a level of potential for virtuosity, and I’m being very specific about the word ‘potential,’ because to put all those skills together is so demanding,” says Whyte, who at one point plays both halves of a bickering couple’s duet while also pounding out the martial soundtrack to Murray and Barb’s matrimonial struggles. Playing 10 characters in one production is one of the greatest puzzles of Whyte’s career, she says; Cox admires his co-star’s adept voice- and posture-changing. Dylan Hewlett Duncan Cox is a singing detective on the hunt for a killer.
“In this space, it’s only Mel and I, but at any given point, there are 12 bodies on the stage,” Cox says. ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.
com Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the . Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. .
Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism.
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Starring: Duncan Cox, Melanie Whyte Tom Hendry Warehouse To April 19 Tickets $21- $48 at royalmtc.ca Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the . Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019.
. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and .
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism.
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