My theatre group * Morrigan Mystery Evenings * specializes in mystery games.

We do them 6-8 times a year and we always have a grand time – first when making up the ridiculous stories and then performing them.
It works like this:

We get a bunch of our actors together and decide some characters we would like to play and then we figure out where those characters might get together.* Then we sort out what has been stolen or who has been done away with, and we figure out each character’s motive and alibi.

After that, we just start adding in foolishness to make things more fun.

We don’t develop a script or dialogue, we just work to inhabit our characters and invest ourselves in their motives and alibis.

Then, on the night of the game, our audience either sits at tables and we circulate and chat while they ask questions, or, we sit in various locations and they move to us and ask questions. It makes for a really interesting and challenging evening because you never know where people’s questions are going to lead and you have to be quick on your feet. Well, metaphorically, at least.

It’s a bit alarming how adept my actor friends are at lying in character, how easily we can spin a story out of nothing, but it’s also part of what makes it interesting.

Our next event is called ‘A Date with Death’ and it’s coming up on Sunday, October 29.

Get the details here.

*Sometimes we start with the location and do characters second, but not very often.