Susi Brown is delighted to be directing an unusual murder mystery at the Coaster Theatre this month.

And she is not at all worried that the author is looking over her shoulder. “I can’t deny it ran through my mind,” she teased, “but it is a lot of pleasure.”

Brown and Mick Alderman have been stalwarts of the Clatsop County theater scene for more than 20 years.

“The Mystery of Marie Roget” is one of five original plays that Alderman has written and staged, but the first he hasn’t directed. “I have always wanted to see how someone else approaches it,” he said. “I am absolutely thrilled that Susi is doing it. She was in the original and we have wanted to resurrect it for a long time. I have not come to many rehearsals. I make a point not to.”

He did, however, build the set and design the lighting.

Twenty years ago, Alderman directed the play’s debut at The River Theater in Astoria. Brown designed the costumes and acted in one of the roles. Now, a fresh production will open the 2025 season at the Coaster Feb. 7 and run for four weekends through March 1.

The drama is based on an essay by Edgar Allen Poe, featuring the lead character from 1841’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

Alderman, a lifelong Poe fan, was fascinated by the story, whose private investigator, C. August Dupin, offered a template for fictional detectives Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

He switched the action from Paris back to New York, where the real murder of a 22-year-old store clerk named Mary Rogers took place. Her body was found floating in the Hudson River and two suitors fell under suspicion. Rogers’ reputation as “the beautiful cigar girl,” whose customers included Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, fueled lurid press coverage which Poe condemned.

“He knew Mary Rogers and was appalled by the coverage in the newspapers, with rampant speculation, all unfocused with bad science,” Alderman said, noting comparisons with today’s media environment. “It is speculation that passes as news — we have got back to that.”

The Coaster production features Bennett Hunter as writer-turned-detective Dupin and Katherine Lacaze as his housekeeper, the role Brown played in the first production.

Ethan Taylor portrays an actor who comes under suspicion and Rhonda Warnack plays a tavern keeper. Bill Honl, who played Dupin in 2005, returns as Lon Garrison, attorney general for New York, double cast with William Ham. When Garrison’s son comes under suspicion, he calls on Dupin’s aid despite prior animosities.

The play has significance for Brown, who cherished her mother’s gift of Poe’s short stories when she was a girl. Her mother died while Brown was staging the 2005 show. Another person at The River also lost a parent. “It colored the entire experience,” she recalled. “But it was a positive experience.”

Brown has enjoyed the revival and believes audiences will appreciate underlying themes. “When a bunch of friends got together to read it again, there are a lot of things that are relevant right now that I am not sure I picked up on back then,” she said.

Costumes are being designed by Sondra Gomez. Brown, who has costumed multiple productions, is delighted to have that help. Their research produced a pleasant surprise. Expecting drab colors commonly associated with the later Victorian era, they discovered that pastels were in vogue in the United States through the 1840s.

Colleen Toomey is the stage manager, part of what Brown labels “a wonderful support system” at the Coaster. She had the same job when Alderman directed “Proof” in Cannon Beach a year ago.

For Honl, playing the lawman is refreshing. “It’s good to see it from a completely different perspective,” the actor said. “I started noticing things from the point of view of another character that I did not notice the first time through.”

‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’

A play by Mick Alderman, directed by Susi Brown at the Coaster Theatre, 108 Hemlock St., Cannon Beach.

Showtimes at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7 and 8, Feb. 14 and 15, Feb. 21 and 22, Feb. 27 and 28, and March 1; 3 p.m. Feb. 16 and 23.

Suitable for ages 14 and above. Tickets are $30 to $35 at www.coastertheatre.com. Pay what you will on Feb. 27.