Calling Sherlock Holmes

It’s not quite a whodunit, but what happened to the Trilogy

Playhouse? The sign remains hanging in the Lab Anti-Mall nearly three

years after it first appeared, but there’s nary a trace of the

theater group that once performed in the Bristol Street venue.

It provided another theater choice in Costa Mesa -- a city proud

to have been dubbed the “City of the Arts.” But oddly, without word

to those in the theater community or this very newspaper, the

curtains fell on the darkened stage.

An actor cast in the theater’s December play got a call before

attending a rehearsal. He was told, “Don’t bother coming for

rehearsal. We’re closed. The show’s canceled.”

It’s an odd departure for the playhouse, which started in Laguna

Niguel in 1993. Even once-helpful phone lines to homes of those

involved have been disconnected.

Trilogy Playhouse, it seems, has become mystery theater.

Whatever the reason for the departure, it would be great if not

only another theater group came in and rose the curtain, but if the

mystery was revealed.