NEDERLAND — Southern clichés abound with the newest production from Nederland High School theater students.

Southern Fried Murder Mystery Dinner Theater will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the high school cafeteria. Tickets for the dinner part of the event are already sold out but fans can still take in the play for $5 with kids under 12 getting in free.

Roxanne Gray, theater director, and Carly Hunt, assistant theater director, said the production, penned by Billy St. John, is interactive with actors speaking directly to the audience thus taking down the “fourth wall.”

“The show takes place in a hotel dining room and plays out a family drama/comedy,” Gray said.

In Southern Fried Murder Mystery the matriarch of the Capote family calls all of her grandchildren, nieces ad nephews together for a big dinner in the dining room of a hotel she owns to release information about her will and their inheritance. They are put through a series of trials and tests and have to solve the puzzle to win the inheritance.

“But in the process there is unexpected murders and revelations such as the true feelings the siblings and cousins have for each other,” she said.

The play features a lot of clichés — many of the female cast members are named Magnolia. There are nods to Tennessee Williams’ work such as Suddenly Last Summer, there’s a character like Blanche Dubois from Streetcar Named Desire and Betty Davis from Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.

“There’s also a good ol’ boy sheriff, sleazy lawyer and twins, a boy and a girl, who just aren’t right,” she said.

Hunt said the dinner part of the theater production features typical southern food with catering by Chicken Express and includes fried chicken. This portion of the tickets is sold out.

Mary Meaux: 409-721-2429

Twitter: @MaryMeauxPANews