Home » The Origin of Murder Mystery Theater; Part 1- The Mingle

Reprint

"The Mingle"

 

Once upon a time... a couple decades ago... someti me in the early 80's... interactive murder mystery theater was invented by... one of the several murder mystery producers who make that claim.  Murder mystery theatre had never been performed without a fourth wall*.  (*That invisible barrier that separates audience from actors and keeps them from seeing you.)  The audience was right there in the middle of the action... and they liked it!  And so interactive murder mysteries spread like wildfire!  Copycats came out of the woodwork eager to make a buck off this easy and inexpensive format.   

 

Many murder mysteries were improvisational timelines formulated by actors and producers, with the cast giving major input into details about their characters and storylines.  They all followed the same not-so-mysterious pattern.  Guests arrive and have cocktails.  Suspicious characters mingle.  Each character hates Mister BadGuy with a passion!  Mister Badguy suddenly DIES!  Conveniently. Right before dinner.  Detective DumName arrives almost instantaneously having been previously alerted to a potential murder by some unexplained psychic power!  Detective DumName usually bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr. BadGuy!  Dumname investigates and soon discovers every single suspect has motive and opportunity.  More mingling ensues.  Maybe even another murder.  Accusations follow.  DumName wraps it up by show of hands, clue cards or by pulling a name out of his... hat.   Clear cut clues as to "whodunit" are questionable as any of the suspects could have "dunnit."  Most likely the actors take turns being the murderer, so don't pat yourself on the back for figuring it out!  This is the way many murder mysteries are still being performed today.  

 

My question to murder mystery producer of this type is; "If ANYONE could have "dunnit" how is it a mystery?