“You could be killed at any time.”
That was the mentality of a shocked nation after seven people died from taking potassium cyanide-laced Tylenol on Sept. 29, 1982, in Chicago.
Dubbed the “Chicago Tylenol Murders,” it was with this hysteria that Alan Bryce, the managing artistic director of Federal Way’s CenterStage Theatre, was confronted when he moved back to the United States from Great Britain that same year.
“To say it was like 9/11 is maybe to inflate it a little bit, but it was a huge national story for weeks,” Bryce said. “And the difference… between this and 9/11 was that 9/11 was this extraordinary, violent, dramatic event, but this one was– it’s like I could die at anytime. I could be killed at anytime, if just some innocent people purchasing painkillers, simple over the counter painkillers, I could be killed at any time.”
Perplexed for 34 years, no one has solved the mystery, which is what prompted Bryce to research the case extensively and write “Death on the Supermarket Shelf,” a CenterStage Theatre production that will run from March 4-26 at Knutzen Family Theatre.
The play relies heavily on information in author Scott Bartz’s novels “Tymurs” and “The Tylenol Mafia: Marketing, Murder and Johnson & Johnson.” Bartz is a former employee of Johnson & Johnson.
But the play is also based on the real-life account of Michelle Rosen, formerly Reiner.
Rosen, played by Cora Pearlstein, was there the day her mother, Lynn Reiner, played by Melanie Hampton, was killed from taking the Tylenol only six days after giving birth to her sibling.
After getting picked up from school that day by her father, Ed Reiner, played by Jamie Pederson, Rosen arrived home to her grandmother holding the new baby and her mother “looking very scary.” 
She was sent upstairs to watch out the window as her mother was whisked away in an ambulance.
“The next day, she still didn’t think her mom was dead,” Bryce said, adding that she thought in her 8-year-old mind that her mother was simply “having another baby.”
Careful not to spoil the play, Bryce said the performance will take the audience on a series of twists and turns as to “whodunnit.”
In fact, he even sought legal help to ensure some of the questions his play poses don’t get him in trouble with big business, such as Johnson & Johnson, the company that makes Tylenol.
“All good, exciting plays have a conflict at their core, and the moral conundrum provides that,” Bryce said. “I would say the moral conundrum isn’t recognized as one but it definitely would be… it’s faced by the CEO of Johnson & Johnson.”
Bryce said the character is faced with deciding to tell the truth or protect the interests of a corporation and its employees, customers and shareholders.
“What is this moral action when you have so many people who rely on you for a living, for their headaches, for their investments?” Bryce said.
“Death on the Supermarket Shelf” has already raised national intrigue. Aside from some Chicago-based press, Bryce has been in contact with Michael Solomon, a man interested in pursuing a film documentary about another suspect in the Tylelnol murder cases – James William Lewis (played by Dean Wilson).
Solomon was neighbors with Lewis, who was charged with extortion after he sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to stop the poisonings, posing as the lone madman. However, police were unable to link him to the crime, and Lewis has denied it ever since.
Bryce has also spoke with people from New York, New Jersey and Texas about his play, which will be directed by Tina Polzin.
For more information or to purchase tickets to “Death on the Supermarket Shelf,” visit centerstagetheatre.com or call 253-661-1444.
