A remote mountaintop resort is closed for winter. A writer is alone inside. Violence, chaos and even a ghostly visit ensue.
It’s not a Stephen King novel; it’s actually a tale dating back to 1913, when novelist Earl Derr Biggers penned a penny dreadful—one of the cheap, sensational serial novels that were mass-produced in the early 1900s—called Seven Keys to Baldpate. Later that year, playwright George Cohan, in a bid to highlight the ridiculousness of the form, wrote a play of the same name.
This February, the 60-year-old Carson City theater troupe Proscenium Players, Inc., will present this outlandish, melodramatic, locked-room mystery at the Brewery Arts Center, transporting audiences back to a time when novelists wrote on typewriters; houses had only one phone; and female journalists were few and far between.
It’s the story of William Hallowell Magee, a novelist with a reputation for cranking out dime-a-dozen pulp-fiction novels. A wealthy friend bets Magee $5,000 that he can’t write a 10,000-word novel in 24 hours. He’ll even offer up his own property, The Baldpate Inn—a secluded summer resort that’s closed and entirely empty—as a quiet place where Magee can work. Magee takes the bet and travels to Baldpate Mountain in New Jersey to meet the Quimby family, the inn’s winter caretakers, who share a bit of the local lore and hand him the key (which he’s told is the only one in existence) before he’s left alone to write.
But he actually doesn’t have the only key; there appear to be seven. Soon, a host of archetypes start appearing at the door: a crooked politician and his toady, a railroad magnate, an uppity female reporter, a femme fatale and a gangster—not to mention a creepy, unexpected resident living in the bowels of the inn. Suddenly, Magee is caught in the middle of a plot to steal a half-million dollars from the hotel safe that was earmarked for a railroad project—and a possible romance with Mary, the reporter he’s only just met.
As in the days of silent film, a narrator freezes the action every time a new character enters the stage to describe them, as a sort of satiric nod to the genre. The show capitalizes on all the hallmarks of melodrama, a genre of the time characterized by its wild, improbable plots, stock character types and over-the-top performances—also an effect of silent film.
Steve Burton, a formally trained actor who plays Magee, explained: “Melodrama went out of fashion with the ‘talkies,’ so that’s when it kind of disappeared. … There’s a point in the show where a telephone rings, and in that time period, a telephone is a relatively new invention. The telephone rings, and the people onstage all gasp. So, it’s that kind of overreacting where the melodrama comes in.”
Director Warren Schader, a longtime PPI performer and director, said he’s leaning into the pulp-fiction aspects of the show, with vivid colors, makeup intended to mimic the graphic novel-style celluloid drawings found in the genre, and harsh lighting. Schader also will rely heavily on sound effects, not to mention choreographed fights and some clever set design that ensures every part of the stage is used to maximum effect.
“Hopefully this is a warning for folks: We’re using blank rounds; there is a gun,” Schader said. “Someone dies. There’s quite a bit of action and flashing lights. We’re trying to make Baldpate a little bit of a character on its own.”
Melodrama archetypes run rampant in the show, including Steven Segal as Jim Cargan, the town’s crooked mayor, who uses his naturally deep voice and muscular frame to align with the mafia stereotypes from the ’20s. Steve Burton’s wife, Maureen Burton, plays Mary Norton, the reporter who—upon getting wind of this plan to write a book in 24 hours—is convinced it would be a great story. She arrives at the inn and falls in love at first sight with Magee. She’s been focused on character traits often exhibited in the female reporter archetype.
“I’ve been watching old-timey movies, especially because there’s the Transatlantic accent, which is a little bit British and a little bit American,” she said.
As a farce, the action grows to a fever pitch, with each passing scene becoming more and more improbable and, ultimately, hilarious. Fortunately, the ending to this mystery is one you won’t see coming.
“It’s really twisty,” said Maureen said. “Every which way you look, there’s a different twist and turn, and a new person with a motive. And then there’s humor thrown in, with a little bit of passion. At the end, your mind is blown. You can’t miss a minute of it.”
Proscenium Players, Inc.’s production of Seven Keys to Baldpate will be performed at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 2 p.m., Sunday, from Feb. 7-16, at the Maizie Blackbox Theater at the Brewery Arts Center, 449 W. King St., in Carson City. Tickets are $25, with discounts. For tickets or more information, visit www.carsontheater.com.
Update, Feb. 18, 2025: The run of Seven Keys to Baldpate has been extended. There are now additional performances scheduled for March 7-9.