Cat and the Canary

This is the play that launched a thousand ghost stories. Written in 1922, John Willard's deliciously macabre mystery invented the "old dark house" genre that would inspire everything from The Addams Family to Scooby-Doo. When six greedy heirs are summoned to their late uncle's crumbling mansion for a midnight will reading, they discover that rumors of ghosts might be the least dangerous thing lurking in the shadows. The air is thick with secrets, and each character has something to hide. Willard serves up genuine chills with a wink, balancing real tension with broad melodrama and sharp wit. The result is a gleefully spooky entertainment about the lengths we'll go to for an inheritance and the skeletons (literal and figurative) we keep in the family closet. It's ghoulish fun that has been delighting audiences for over a century.