As I walked into the Little Theatre, three things became obvious: I was enamoured with the faux-cafe setup of the audience seating; I was in immediate need for a cupcake; and I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

The premise of the play was simple: wealthy family members and friends with interpersonal entanglements get together one weekend and do what wealthy people do best – drama. However, this wasn’t your typical soap opera plot.

Set in the 1950s, Agatha Christie’s The Hollow opens in the Angkatell household. The first act plays out in a Downton Abbey-esque manner (“I love you,” “But I don’t love you”) until one of the attendees, Dr. John Cristow (senior Aaron Ruiz) is shot dead by an unseen party.

From that moment on, everyone is a suspect. Did Cristow’s paramour, Henrietta Angkatell (sophomore Nell Buechler) end his life out of jealousy? Was Cristow’s ex-lover Veronica Craye (freshman Sophie Niles) not quite over their old romance? Or – as cliche as it may seem – did the butler (sophomore Jude Brooks-Brenham) do it? The way Act Two is set up, the audience has no choice but to question everyone.

Nearing the draw of the play, the actors definitely brought additional depth and character development to these initially superficial characters. Attendees saw Midge (senior Elise Hodges) and Edward Angkatell (junior Jimmy Marques) progress the most, as they go from lost souls to lovers. And it isn’t until the end that misplaced confidence and a series of deceptive turns cause the killer, John’s wife Gerda Cristow (senior Jen Sloan) to get her just desserts.

The set design was aesthetically pleasing, incorporating era pieces into the background, such as an antique radio, crystal decanters, and even a telephone with a rotary dial. I found myself coveting many of the characters’ nostalgia-inducing dresses and was surprised to find out that each costume was hand-crafted by teacher and co-director Erin Pena and costume design students Quinton Drake and Clarissa Boerner.

Having begun their rehearsals in November, the actors’ hard work clearly paid off. Despite the absence of microphones, they projected their voices so well that even I, hard of hearing and sitting at the back, easily understood everything in their fabricated British accents and, in Inspector Colquohoun’s (senior David Williams) case, Scottish accent. Additionally, the ensemble’s chemistry was wholly tangible, and they communicated emotions with their expressions so powerfully that the audience couldn’t help but be immersed in the twists and turns of these characters’ messy lives.

The Hollow was the first McNeil theater production I had attended, but it definitely won’t be my last.