JACKSON TALENT AGAIN BOOSTS RIVER CITY PLAYERS (A REVIEW)

A love triangle? A real or fake suicide? Names forged or not forged? Guilty or not guilty?

These are just a few of the questions that the audience/jury will be asked to make after viewing "Night of January 16th," an adapted Ayn Rand comedy-drama, being staged by the River City Players.

The 1933 Rand script has been modernized and also localized, to include local reference points such as the Hirsch Tower, Royale New Orleans Bistro, Southeast Missourian Building and Bent Creek. The production, directed by Chuck Ross, will be a dinner show at the River City Yacht Club, above the Port Cape Restaurant, beginning Friday night.

As usual, the River City Players make good use of Jackson talent. Five Jackson residents, Elaine Carlson, David Hopper, Mike Manning, Stan Koeller and Lori Prewitt, appear in the cast. Prewitt is also technical director, while Jackson's Suzanne Scherer is assistant director and Jake Martin lighting and sound director.

The Rand script brings the audience into the action. Ballots will be passed out each night and the attendees will be asked to decide the guilt or innocence of defendant Karen Andre (Stacey Storey). The final scene of the play will depend upon the verdict.

"We never know how the play will turn out," Ross said "It's a night-to-night thing. "There will be ballots in the program. The audience is the jury. It's true audience interaction."

It is also the kind of "case" that leads to hung juries. "Jurors" will have a ton of alleged motives, conflicting testimonies, impassioned pleas and changing developments to wade through.

Business mogul Bjorn Faulkner is dead -- apparently found mangled on the sidewalk after a fall from the 1 3-story Hirsch Tower, with a bullet wound near the heart. Andre, his long-time secretary and alleged lover, is charged with first degree murder.

Faulkner, according to District Attorney Flint (played by real-life attorney Dan Finch), had changed his ways after marrying the former Nancy Whitfield (Gelaine Lockhart) and was in the process of frying to repay stockholders whom he had swindled over the years. At his wife's insistence, Faulkner had let Andre go. According to the prosecution, the former personal secretary shot him, then shoved him off the penthouse railing.

A private detective, hired by Mrs. Faulkner saw her shove a body over the railing from the room of the Southeast Missourian office -- after partaking of a few drinks at the Royale New Orleans Bistro. The body, assumed to be that of Faulkner, is too badly splattered for positive identification.

Andre at first argues that Faulkner had indeed committed suicide (as a note left behind indicated). Later, however, she supposedly learns of Faulkner's true death for the first time and changes her testimony. The two of them had made plans to take $10 million and fly to South America together. They brought in gangster Larry Regan (Kevin Wright) to help set up the suicide. Regan, she said, provided the dead body, of a rival gangster who had conveniently been shot the same day, and had Faulkner change clothes with the corps.

Regan testifies, though, that the airplane he bad hidden had taken off without him. He later found it burned in Illinois, with a burned corps in it whom he believed to be Faulkner.

Also instrumental in the controversy is wealthy banker John Graham Whitfield (Brock Schreckenborg), Faulkner's father-in-law. Regan alleges that Whitfield -- a licensed pilot -had shot Faulkner, then flown to the rural Illinois site and burned the plane and body.

Plenty of potential cracks appear in each story and witnesses seem to agree on very little -- except that the late mogul and his secretary had worked side-by-side in swindling stockholders for years.

Deadlines forced the reviewer to see the actors a night before dress rehearsal. While costumes and a completed set will no doubt enhance the overall effect, the performance is obviously strong. Even in street clothes (and with Ross filling in for real-life judge William Rader in the role of judge), the performance is intriguing and entertaining. While modernized and localized, Rand's genius is left untarnished. The story is gripping -- if goofy -- from beginning to end and is administered well by the River City Players.

Prewitt, as prison matron, Rich Behring as court clerk and Matt Owens as Dr. Kirkland, make very brief stage appearances. The rolls of Policeman Elmer Sweeney (Champ Friend), mob moll Roberta Van Rennsselear (Debbie Barnhouse), PI Homer Van Fleet (Manning), housekeeper Magda Svenson (Lee Ann Statler) and hand writing expert Jane Chandler (Carlson) are also brief, but substantial enough for the performers to shine through with strong outings.

Koeller, as the bailiff, is on stage much of the night, but seldom heard from. When called upon to administer oaths, though, his bearing and deep voice make him a natural. As stated, Rader was not present for the review; Ross was more than adequate in his place.

The mainline characters were all well-presented. The hoodlum Regan, in love with Andre and owner of the gun that killed whoever was thrown from the penthouse, is well done by Wright. Simon JunQuist, another sleazy character, rescued from prison by the late tycoon to help creatively balance his books, is handled solidly by David Hopper.

The stuffy John Graham Whitfield (Schreckenborg) and his seemingly grief-stricken daughter (Lockhart) are both played with aplomb. One of the play's highlights is an angry exchange between the two dominant women in Faulkner's life, Nancy Faulkner and Andre.

The biggest tasks are carried by the two attorneys -- certainly the largest chunks of text, anyway. Finch seems as much at home in the ludicrous settings of this fictitious courtroom as in a real one and turns in strong work. Having nothing to do with the convoluted explanations of the defendant and her cohorts, he makes a strong case for the prosecution. Jeff Statler, as Defense Attorney Stevens, is also strong. Fending off the prosecution's "expert" witnesses and adjusting mid-stream to changes in his client's testimony, he weaves together a believable scenario in which Andre could not possibly have murdered Faulkner.

While much of her on-stage time is spent glowering or looking pained at hostile testimony, Storey's portrayal of Karen Andre is also first-rate. Whether Storey (or author Rand, for that matter) really believe Andre was innocent or guilty is not known. Her performance was believable, nevertheless, and helped cement a strong and entertaining performance.

The crew of Ross, Scherer, set design director Charlie Kent, Prewitt and Martin provide professional support for the cast, while the ancient wood and brick interior of the 19th-century Yacht Club makes an excellent backdrop for the trial.

Dinner shows ($18.50 per person at 334-0954) begin at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday. Alter a two-week respite, the production begins again June 19, with a dinner show, followed by a Father's Day matinee June 20. The final production is June 25.