by Alexi Stonehouse
What's It All About?
- A Murder Mystery for an acting company to perform to an audience
- The actors improvise the dialogue based on plot and character briefs provided by Lazy Bee Scripts
- The audience members question the cast
- The audience try to work out whodunnit
What Does Lazy Bee Scripts Provide?
Lazy Bee Scripts supplies a pack of material, including:-- An Overview for the Organiser, including
- Guidelines for preparing the mystery
- Guidelines for running the mystery
- Suggested timings
- A "narrative arc" for the mystery
- Key plot points
- Essential events
- Character Briefs for each character
- Character description
- Character history
- Motivation
- The Solution
- An explanation of who dunnit and why!
- Additional Materials
- Letters, a police report, a newspaper cutting and a memo on a photograph.
- An aide memoire listing the characters.
- Detective Sheets for the audience to submit their accusations
Note that Lazy Bee Scripts does not provide a script for the dialogue.
Because the actors are interacting with the audience, it is not possible to stick to a fixed script. Instead the actors improvise dialogue based on the "narrative arc."
| What's a Murder Mystery Event? |
- The audience members are brought together for a fictitious 'special event' (and encouraged to dress appropriately for the occasion). A murder takes place, which the participants are invited to solve.
- In this case
- The event commemorates the tenth anniversary of the death in World War 2 of a popular soldier.
- The audience are invited guests - friends and family of Major Twice and his men.
- The actors play out a series of events - a murder and its aftermath - revealing information that may lead to the identity of the murderer.
- The audience interrogate the suspects, then make accusations before the murderer is revealed in A Blast from the Past
- This Mystery Needs
- An 'acting company' of 5 to 6 people, including at least 1 man and 4 women
- One set comprising furniture
- Estimated run times (which may vary enormously!)
- Improvised elements: 90 minutes
- Audience interrogation: 30 minutes
|
What's the Mystery Here?
A Blast from the Past is set in 1953 at a gathering to remember the death in battle of Major Luke Twice. The dedicated group who fought under him in WW2 have been dying under suspicious circumstances, so their relatives are here to represent them and find out what’s going on:-
The sole remaining member of the group, Major Warren Peece.
Armand Legg, Warren's twin brother.
Esther Sketch daughter of the late Captain Rick O'Shea.
Major Twice's widow, Sue Pearior.
April Showers, widow of Lieutenant Kit Baggs.
Paige Turner, mother of private Billy Canns.
Just as questions are beginning to be asked about the fate of the comrades of Major Twice, there is another murder. It's up to the audience to discover whodunnit.