We Review: The Murderers @ Seattle Rep

Seattle Rep's The Murderers is three monologues, one after the other, that thankfully get more entertaining as the show goes along. Each monologue deals with a murder (or murders) committed at the Florida retirement community, and sends up a different view of senior citizens -- as old moneybags who keep their heirs on tenterhooks, as randy old goats, as cash cows for the unscrupulous. It's a mildly dark series of "I-dun-its" for Matlock's urban audiences and their graying kids. Any younger, and you're there just for Sarah Rudinoff, which is right and good.

Hatcher's script gives Mark Anders a chance to gigolo again (after Souvenir at ACT), as Gerald Halverson, the man who marries his mother-in-law so that they can skirt the death tax on her estate. Anders does some passable impressions (and one nifty, gravel-voiced one), but the story wanders in focus and never decides what it's about: nostalgia, satire, or unlikely romances. (Anders does terrific bitter irony. In character, he waited for an audience member to pick up their ringing cell phone -- "Go ahead and get it, we'll wait.")

Joan Porter Hollander's Golden Girls-riff as Lucy Stickler is more on point -- despite having some kind of terminal "condition," she's sharp as a tack and doesn't take the arrival of her husband's ex-mistress lying down. Murder inspires a wonderful giddiness in her, and Hatcher builds her a credible, offhand history of tongue-biting acceptance that she finally dismisses, in gear at last.

Sarah Rudinoff as put-upon staff member, mystery novel addict, and avenging angel Minka Lupino takes the show to don't-miss territory. There's a subtle difference between a good actor and a monologuist, a willingness to accept the audience's full attention on your story and repay that interest. Rudinoff's forthright, helpful, serial-killing Lupino is, like her mysteries, addictive -- we'd be happy to see her in Murderers 2 next week. She doesn't care much for the label serial killer -- it's not a ego-based numbers game for her, just things that need to be put right.

Stephen Dietz's staging is the kind that lets the drama or comedy find you -- it's transparent, seems just like people moving about naturally, no mugging, nothing too broad. The set is just a concierge's desk, a big sign that says Riddle Key Estates, and a few pieces of furniture, but the costumes tend to evoke southern retirement vividly all on their own.

Tues-Sun, through November 4 // Seattle Rep // Tickets $10-$40

Photo: Sarah Rudinoff as Minka in Jeffrey Hatcher’s Murderers. Photo copyright Chris Bennion 2007.