Murder Mystery Evenings May 2009

Last year, following one of our Spring shows, we were approached by a representative of the St John the Baptist Church appeals team. They were thinking of putting on a Murder Mystery show as a fundraising event and wondered if we would be willing to provide a cast to act out the murder and mystery part of it.

Never having tried anything like that before, the Committee decided that perhaps we would be willing to give it a go, as long as it didn't interfere with our regular productions. It took some time to get the ball really rolling, by which time it had become a split event, over two consecutive evenings, with proceeds for the second going to the Worthing Churches Homeless Projects charity.

As noted elsewhere, we are a secular group and have no formal affiliation with anyone else, so we do not actively support or advocate either cause. That said, they are both good local community projects and we met plenty of nice folks from both - if you are looking to help out within your own community, you could do worse than get in touch with either organisation.

Anyway, as most of the organising was being done elsewhere, all we had to do was pick a suitable mystery and cast and rehearse it. Rather like a mini-production, but with the added bonus of being able to read from a script rather than having to learn lines! The script and license was to be purchased from www.justamo.com, who have a selection of such things. Never having seen their work before, it was rather a question of taking pot luck with one that sounded like it would be interesting and castable. In the end, I picked "A Question Of Murder", with a cast of 8, set at a teacher recruitment agency after the tragic death of a promotion candidate during an "activity" weekend. The play itself is set during the following job interviews of the other candidates, with the company director seeking to establish who was responsible for the death - or should we say, murder.

In the event, the company supplied a pretty thorough set of materials and guidance on how to arrange the evenings, along with a good script laden with red herrings and misdirections. Just as you might expect for a whodunnit, in fact. Anyone who is considering a similar fundraising or entertainment evening might like to check out their products; I don't think we'd have any problem in recommending them!

Without further ado, then, it was down to organising a volunteer cast and setting up for a couple of run-throughs. I was pleased by the level of interest shown: no arm-twisting was required to get the necessary team together and Lyndsey kindly offered her house to rehearse in. Two evenings of that (well, we do quite a lot of this acting lark, to be fair - inexperienced practitioners may want to allow a couple more run-throughs) and we were ready to go. A few props - clipboards and suchlike - and some suitably smart business attire completed the requirements, then it was down to Findon Village Hall for the Friday night debut.

As long-term users of the hall, it was familiar territory - and so were some of the faces in the crowd! An audience of around 45 watched the cast perform for about an hour (it's a fairly in-depth script!), then retired for food and to take at a (hopefully not too wild) guess at the identity of the murderer(s). Then we were back on for the denouement - and, as rather a pleasant surprise, a curtain call and special thanks from Sue Stevens, chief organiser. Answers were then marked and prizes awarded...although, the winner was decided by "most clues solved", as nobody came up with the right solution!

The following night it was down to The Old Barn in Goring, with Sam in place of Clare B, and rather a different prospect. No stage and no backstage meant we were tucked away between the "acting area" and the kitchen, shielded by some temporary screens and trying to keep out of the way of the organisers! Not their fault in any way, and Ann Maggs - in charge - did everything she could to accommodate us given the limitations of the venue layout. Still, it went well and the larger audience - getting on for 60 - were appreciative. Obviously slightly more adept at sleuthing, three teams came up with a correct murderer, although - without giving too much away - nobody got the full answer. We sneaked out just after the quiz answers and were delighted to get a solid round of applause as we headed for the exit!

All in all, two fun evenings that certainly seemed to entertain the audience. It was extremely painless working with both sets of organisers, so credit to them all for doing a fine job! We liked the experience enough to consider running one of these ourselves, perhaps as entertainment at our next patron's afternoon. Might try and pick one with an easier solution, though - this one seemed to be quite fiendish ( - even with the benefit of the scripts, we didn't pick up on all of the clues...)!

And whodunnit? Well, I'm not going to say, just in case anyone out there wants to use it themselves!

Special thanks go to my cast for pitching in and delivering some high-quality entertainment As the character of Martin said in the last play: "I always thought we were good enough to be professionals"!

Apologies for the quality of some of the photographs, by the way: having carelessly forgotten to bring a proper camera, I was reduced to using a mobile phone (obviously without flash) and hoping for the best...

Gareth Jones as Christian "Chrissy" Freemanson, Company director, philanderer and having an affair with the deceased.	Clare Buckland as Ginny Power, Brutally efficient organiser and having an affair with Lord Brown. (This role was played by Samantha Merrick on the Saturday).
John Maplesden as Lord Geoffrey "Jiffers" Brown, Tea magnate and having affairs with almost all the girls.	Trevor Rowe as Allan Lewis, Bluff Yorkshireman and business rival to Lord Brown. (Special thanks to patron Trevor for volunteering to come out of acting retirement. Especially since it turned out he wasn't bluffing, he was a genuine Yorkshireman!)
Linda Cooper as Carla Prendergast, Ambitious job candidate and hard as nails.	Clare-Louise Mitchell as Rosey Slater, Job candidate, illegitimate daughter of Allan and would-be girlfriend of Simon. (It's not always easy to stop Clare moving, even for a photo!)
Zahir White as Simon Cooper, Job candidate and all-round dreadfully boring IT person.	Lyndsey Kite as Brigitte Bennett, Job candidate and willing to use any means necessary.

And a rather poor photo of the Saturday night cast, just to show that Sam was there!

Events - May 2009