Mindgame's flaws put Onstage Atlanta in straightjacket

If you’re the kind of theater-goer who loves a good mystery and likes to deduce whodunit, I strongly advise you not to open the program of Mindgame at Onstage Atlanta. If you’ve seen such stage thrillers as Sleuth and its imitators, you can pretty much figure out all of Mindgame’s twists within about 30 minutes if you know the size of the cast and the length of the play. Mindgame has more problems than simply being too easy to figure out, though.

The play depicts True Crime writer Mark Styler (Charlie Miller) on a visit to a hospital for the criminally insane in rural England. He hopes to arrange an interview with “Easterman,” England’s most notorious mass murderer, but the hospital director, Dr. Farquar (Darrell Wofford), proves uncooperative, claiming to have never heard of Styler, despite their scheduled appointment. In their conversation, Styler explains his fascination with serial killers, especially Easterman, who attains a larger-than-life mystique. His stay in Farquar’s office becomes increasingly strange, from the out-of-nowhere sirens and bursts of amplified Muzak intercoms to the presence of a decorative skeleton in the office of a psychiatrist.