Sometimes the key to solving a murder is right under one’s nose — and hidden in the center of the dining room.

Patrick Hamilton’s “Rope” is being performed Oct. 7-9 at the Port Arthur Little Theatre on 4701 Jimmy Johnson Blvd. in Port Arthur. The Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday show is at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are $12 for general audience, $10 for seniors and $6 for active military, students and teachers. Tickets may be reserved at www.palt.org or by calling (409) 727-PALT.

“Rope” is a thriller in which the murder takes place at the start of the play. The audience already knows the identity of the culprits, who decide to host a dinner party to show off their self-styled superiority.

“This isn’t a murder mystery, but a suspense thriller,” Janet Lene, the director, said. “It was originally a case in Chicago in the 1920s, and the playwright took the case and put a few twists in it.”

“It’s a suspense thriller,” Patrick Lene, one of the main actors, agreed. “You already know who killed who and why they killed him … and you’re just wondering how this will work out.”

Even popular filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock made a motion picture out of it in 1948.

“The movie is way different from the play,” Patrick said. “Which is a good thing, I think, because that means the audience wouldn’t have seen our (rendition) of it yet.”

It will not be the first time that “Rope” has played at PALT either.

“It’s been about 20 years ago when the Little Theatre did it,” Janet said.

In fact, she pointed to Patrick, who performed in PALT’s original production as one of the murderers, is now playing as one of the dinner guests.

“The guests represent the archetypes of London society at the time,” Patrick said.

“You may like some of the guests; you may not. All are interesting characters and each play a (specific) role in the play.”

“The guests were mainly invited for what they can bring to the party,” Janet said.

“Two of them are there just because they (represent) the average person.

“One is the father [of the victim] and he brings his brother along.

“And another is invited because he is an intellectual.”

And in crafting a version of their own, Janet said she is confident that she and the cast can bring something unique to it by adhering to the source material.

“We were just bringing our own interpretation to it,” Janet said. “We’re trying to be as close to the script as possible.”

Some of the changes the director mentioned were demanded more by necessity than anything else.

“Gender swaps had to occur,” Janet said. “One role called for an older aunt, but we didn’t have any older women available for it; so, we changed it to an older uncle.”

Another such instance was swapping out a younger male character for a younger female character.

When speaking about the holiday season, Janet said she thought “Rope” an especially good choice for the time.

“It’s a good way to get the Halloween (season) started with something suspenseful,” she said. “We try to do a murder mystery usually for the Halloween season, but we just opted for a suspense thriller this time.

“There’s not a lot of them done in this area, usually it’s just comedies and musicals. We’re trying to get a different audience.”

“Rope” has already played last weekend, and the response has “been very positive,” according to Janet.

“They loved it. Even people who haven’t been to a play before went to see it.”

For Janet, the time period was also an important aspect, one where such a gruesome crime would stand out more.

“One of the reasons I chose not to modernize it is that it’s just an everyday thing now, and I wanted to keep it in an age of innocence,” Janet said.

“I want to expose the audience to what London in the 1920s was like.”