We had a team celebration today at
Kells and it was a
rather fun murder mystery dinner (well, lunch) theater from Eddie May
Mysteries.
The idea is that, while you eat, there are actors who come in portraying
different suspects in a murder mystery. You talk to them, they leave
“clues” and “evidence” at your table, and at the end you have to figure
out who the killer was.
Our mystery took place supposedly in 1929, so all the actors had
costumes on and acted like it was the roaring ’20s.
At one point, one of the characters left some “evidence” at our table -
a purse with a bloody handkerchief in it.
Now, I’m a fan of mystery movies and such, so the first thing I start
thinking is, red herring. I mean, no way it’s going to be this blatant,
right?
Finally we got a chance to ask the characters questions, sort of near
the end. The actress who had the bloody handkerchief sat down and I
started thinking… given the time period… woman with a bloody
handkerchief… maybe not living the healthiest lifestyle…
“Are you sick?” I asked.
“What?” The actress looked a little shocked.
“Sick. Are you sick? Like, not mentally ill, but physically. Do you have
any disease?”
“Why do you ask?” She looked legitimately confused and started acting
like I was being offensive to her character.
“Well, given the time frame, somewhat close to turn of the century, I’m
wondering if you have
tuberculosis. Consumption.
You have a bloody handkerchief in your purse and there’s no way it’s
that obvious.”
At this point she actually broke character. “This is what you get when
you do the show for smart people. I’ve been doing this show for years
and I’ve literally never heard anyone ask that question. Have you ever
heard of Occam’s razor?”
I couldn’t help but giggle a little. “Yeah.”
“OK, good. Think way… way… way simpler than that. Truly, you’re
overthinking it.” She laughed a little.
So… Maybe I should stop watching so many mystery movies. I always
expect it to be this crazy convoluted thing now and I ignore the obvious
stuff.
I ended up getting it right, despite over-thinking it.
Anyway, it was a pretty sweet event. The actors were good and were
obviously having fun with it, which made it all the more fun for us. I
would totally do it again.