Comedy-thriller by Antigonish playwright to help raise money for libraries across Canada

So … whodunit?

That will be the question at the Halifax Central Library on Monday evening when a Halifax-specific version of the play Murder by the Book is performed for the first time.

The murder-comedy was originally created by Antigonish playwright Laura Teasdale last year, with support from best-selling Canadian author Louise Penny.

It was specifically created to be a fundraiser for a local library in Knowlton, Que., where Penny currently resides.

Penny said the play was a huge hit, with more than 1,000 people coming out in support of the library.

"It was so much fun because we had local references, and so people who were in the audience heard their name or the names of their parents and it was just — it was genius and it was a blast," Penny told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon on Wednesday. 

"And then when it was over, Laura and I sort of thought, 'You know what, I think this might be applicable to really any library,' and God knows libraries are vital and they need our support."

That moment, and requests from other libraries to use the script, encouraged Teasdale to rewrite the play so it can travel more widely. 

"The best [part] about a play that's written for you, is that it's for your own people and that's what we wanted to try and recreate with this," Teasdale told Maritime Noon.

Teasdale said she made the play applicable to anywhere in Canada by leaving fill-in-the-blank spaces to reflect specific community characters and local inside jokes. 

She said she's also working on adapting the play to make it work for the United States and the United Kingdom.

Teasdale said the play is about the fictional town of Two Spruce which is trying to raise money to save their beloved library by inviting community actors to perform a show — but of course, someone is murdered.

"They still have to put on the show because if they don't, they're going to lose the library, so how they are going to go about solving the crime while preparing to do the show with a dead body, is kind of the premise of the show," she said.

Teasdale said she has already heard from five or six libraries in Nova Scotia who want to use the script, including one that wants to build a teen hangout with any money raised from the eventual performance. 

Penny said she has also heard from a handful of people, and she expects them to use any funds raised to expand their collections and provide more programming and spaces for their community. 

"Libraries are no longer the places I grew up in — which I love. I love libraries and still do," she said. 

"But you know, you'd go in and the first thing you hear is shhh. That is simply no longer the case. Now libraries are throwing open their doors to everyone and making themselves pertinent."

The first performance of Murder by the Book, specifically for a Halifax audience, will be free to the public at the Halifax Central Library on Monday from 7-9 p.m. 

Teasdale said the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre is providing the actors and the Playwrights Guild of Canada is providing the script for free to any library that wants it. 

"We've been so fortunate.… It's just fantastic how many people have helped out," she said.