Home
Audition Listings Call for Actors Call for Production Teams Emergencies
Show Listings Now Playing Coming Attractions
Peer Reviews Read Reviews Become a Peer Reviewer
Resources Theatre Guide Training Costume and Prop Sales
Submit Your Information Log In Sign Up

Peer Reviews

Dinner with a Side of Murder: Ye Olde Murdyr Mysterie
By J. Myers

Entire contents are copyright © 2007, J. Myers. All rights reserved.

As I had no plans for Saturday night, witnessing a murder sounded like an interesting date. I felt it was best to know nothing, to approach the evening as a mystery -- after all, I was about to experience WhoDunnit's production of Ye Olde Murdyr Mysterie. I say experience because I didn't know whether I would be watching a conventional play or be thrust into the role of witness, victim, or even detective. To be on the safe side, I did bring a fairly burly companion.

Enter the curtain into Masterson's lounge and take a journey through space and time. The dark wood paneling conjures up the darker parts of human nature, as my companion and I are transported back to the Welsh town of Gwynedd's Renn in the year 1007. And thus, we began our dinner with a side of murder. The other spectators/detectives were not the hard-core Sherlock Holmes impersonators I feared running into at this sort of soiree. There were families and couples where the only common denominator was that we were all thrust into the role of fellow revelers privy to the personal and political lives of six medieval characters gathering for Beltane. As this is a mystery, and as I myself was happy to enter the great hall ignorant of what was to transpire, I will not even reveal the nature of this pagan holiday. Let it be the first clue you track down.

	WD
(From left:) Alicia Davis, James Wolford Hardin and Colleen Mooney portray three of the characters in this interactive mystery set in medieval Wales.

The best part of the intricate web woven by the players of WhoDunnit is figuring it out for yourself. The actors themselves are skilled at this game that I now attempt to play, revealing just enough to intrigue but not too much to spoil the sport of discovery. To this end, the cast of Ye Olde Murdyr Mysterie spins the tale through two forms of theatre -- the presentation of story through staged scenes, and improvisation in character one-on-one with the audience. Both of these interactions give the audience members a chance to form their own theories and then ferret out facts by engaging the characters in conversation. I loved watching my fellow time-travelers react to clues and even ask for information from other tables. Interaction is the name of the game at WhoDunnit. Get involved in the story, try to push past red herrings and false clues, and glean the awful truth -- who had reason to kill? In the case of Ye Olde Murdyr Mysterie, the question is even more complex: all had reason, but which motive trumped and became realized in action.

Ye Olde Murdyr Mysterie
By A.S. Waterman
Directed by Niles T. Welch
Performances at Masterson's
1830 South Third St.
Louisville, KY 40208

May 12 - June 16, 2007

(502) 426-7100
www.whodunnitky.com

Doors open at 6:30; show starts at 7:00. $39.95 includes dinner, show, tax and gratuity.

Posted May 16, 2007