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Suppose you have:

1. some really funny dialogue

2. a lot of complex and intriguing interrelationships of love, lust, resentment and cultural conflict

3. a colourful and varied cast of characters, and

4. no story.

Q: What do you do?

A: Kill one.

Basically that's how you get from last year's wildly successful "West Wylie Story," Phyllis Heeney's memorable musical comedy about the founding of Deep River, to this year's wildly successful "Murder at the Byeways," a dinner theatre murder mystery presentation by those indefatigible Deep River Players which wrapped last weekend after a sold-out six-show run (seven including the open dress rehearsal).

Once again Heeney takes the helm as writer and director, and thrusts us back into the company of Dolores, Reginald, Patty Sue, Howard, Sir John Cockrow, Jacob and Elizabeth Stewart, and all their goofy friends and eccentric colleagues.

This time, however, we are all guests at the wedding of über-nerd Reginald E. Whittington III and Dolores Stewart, aka Mufferaw Josephine.

Kevin Myers and Julie Therrien reprise these roles, and are so obviously comfortable in the characters that we forgot their real selves the moment we shook hands in the receiving line.

The wedding banquet takes place in the infamous Byeways Hotel, and the set is complete with a full-size reproduction of its regrettably combustible Champlain mural, which also figures directly into the mystery's solution.

(Some, who claim to know, say the mural is a good match for the original, but Argus says the mural is like the 60's - if you remember it, you weren't there.)

The dinner proceeds just as you might expect. It's a glorious potluck stew of one-liners, puns, potty jokes, physical comedy, running gags ("there's nothing in my pocket, I really am glad to see you"), topical anachronisms (including passing digs at our birthday-card-loving MP and the much-maligned MAPLE reactor project), and homages to the previous show.

There's even an occasional rim shot from the band to punctuate a joke. Really.

In the middle of it all, "Izzy," the local millionaire madwoman, played with absolute abandon by Glenda Delaney, apparently shuffles off this mortal coil, with the assistance of two pickled eggs, a felling axe, and a person or persons unknown.

Cue the parlour detective and start guessing whodunit.

The whole thing is dished up with the same great enthusiasm that carried "West Wylie," and nowhere in the production could any cast member be seen to slack off even when the main action was elsewhere.

Some performances, though, deserve a special mention:

The bickering between Howard (Ike Dimayuga) and Patty Sue (Mona Primeau) was nicely played, again showing how the actors have become comfortable in their respective characters.

Alex Hartwig as Nigel, the best man... Dude, you should start thinking decaf.

Kristen Glowa was untouchable as the amorous busybody Miss Wigglebottom; the only thing that diverts her from taking note of other people's business is her unpleasant and unrequited passion for her boss.

Jade Nauman was so consistently vacant as Alice, the pregnant friend, that when she turned sideways you'd swear the spotlights shone out of her upstage ear.

Andy English's portrayal of Father O'Drunkalot was considerably more subtle and believable than the character's name would imply.

Jeremy Whitlock was back as the officious and pedantic Sir John Cockrow.

Even in this very broad characterization, Jeremy still demonstrated his skill at getting and holding an audience's attention by nailing each of the three critical elements of comedy - timing, timing, and timing.

Musically, the show featured original songs by Dan and Jane Vachon, with Dan leading the tight little pit band each night.

The torchy "No Place to Spend It" as sung by Alyson Yaraskovitch was the musical highlight.

Give her 10 more years and a couple of heartbreaks for seasoning and this lady's blues will be smokin' on an international level.

We were a little disappointed with the love ballad, "I Can't Believe I've Gotten Married," which seemed to be pitched wrong and oddly rushed, such that Kevin and Julie's strong voices were largely wasted.

However, the show theme "Someday It Will All Burn Down" was catchy and singable and really got the crowd going.

For this event, extra stage construction at the Legion helped make the production visible and audible in this otherwise difficult venue.

It also gave the cast more things to trip over, producing some unanticipated slapstick.

If you were looking for subtle, this was not the show.

If you prefer audience engagement to enforced participation, you needed to be elsewhere.

Looking for Theatre with a capital TH? Get over it - it's a murder mystery, and it wasn't trying to be anything else - enthusiastic and unpretentious and the audiences ate it up night after night.

The Burler lives....