Avery Hopwood

Lincoln Wagenhals and Collin Kemper originally staged Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood's three-act play The Bat in 1920. Cornelia Van Gorder and her guests spend a rainy night at her leased summer home looking for stolen money they think is concealed there while being followed by a disguised intruder known as "the Bat." This is a comedy with mystery elements. At the conclusion of the last act, The Bat's identity is made known. The Circular Staircase, a 1908 mystery novel by Rinehart, served as the inspiration for the original play's plot. In order to adapt the story for the stage, Rinehart and Hopwood added the titular antagonist. The Selig Polyscope Company, who produced the 1915 motion picture adaptation of the book with the same name, The Circular Staircase, engaged in a legal battle over the film rights as a result of the relationship to the book. The piece premiered as The Bat at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway on August 23, 1920, after performing as A Thief in the Night during previews. Both critically and financially successful, The Bat. There were 327 performances in London and 867 in New York, and various road companies toured the show to other cities

About the Book- Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876 - September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's.She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase. She is considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing. She also created a costumed supercriminal called "the Bat", who was cited by Bob Kane as one of the inspirations for his "Batman." -Wikipedia

Mystery Comedy / Characters: 7 male, 3 female Scenery: 2 Interiors In this popular American mystery play, incident is piled on incident with skill and plausibility, and it is impossible to know who the real criminal is until the final curtain. This thriller revolves around Cornelia Van Gorder, a maiden lady of sixty, who rents the summer home of a banker reported killed in Colorado. She is warned that mysterious things are happening but she refuses to move. Then it is discovered that a large sum is missing from the dead man's bank and it is suspected that, far from being dead, he stole the money, hid it in a secret chamber in his house and is only waiting for a chance to sneak back to get it. Four others are after the money: the bank cashier who is wrongfully accused of taking it, a detective engaged by Miss Van Gorder to clear up the mystery, a doctor friend and supposed confederate of the missing banker and The Bat, a notorious thief who has long eluded the police. This genuine thriller is guaranteed to divert any audience.