Top Ten Murder Mystery Events - 10 to 6

If you’ve been following Right Here Productions for a while, you’ll have seen the many (many) selfies we take at the events we do, and a lot of them are taken at murder mysteries. It’s probably the most popular service we offer at the moment and we absolutely love them. Every single one has been so much fun and we always come away from them with at least one funny story to tell. In fact, a couple of years ago, we held an ‘Oscars’ with our actors to celebrate the ridiculous hijinks we get up to when we perform together. It was tough, but I’ve come up with my top ten events of all time. There are so many stories to tell though, this post covers numbers ten down to six…

Craig and Larry perusing a book they found at Pittodrie House - the house we set the scenario in is called Upton Manor… Spooky!

10. Pittodrie House

We love Pittodrie House. We’ve done a number of events at the hotel and it’s great for a murder mystery - lots of places to hide clues, or a dead body, and the staff are always super friendly and helpful.

At this particular event, we had asked if we could have a bedroom as our crime scene, where we would take some of the guests to look for evidence. We were shown to a lovely room where we laid down our ‘bloodied’ rug and hid various clues, including two wine glasses, one with a very obvious lipstick mark on them. Later on, not long before the event was due to start, one of our actors, Craig, arrived and as he was playing one of the characters who would escort guests to the crime scene, we thought it best that he see it first. So off we went to the bedroom and the first thing that struck us was a strong smell of perfume. Then we spotted a pair of shoes that hadn’t been there before. Then a suitcase… and we quickly realised that guests had been checked in to our crime scene!! Cue us very quickly moving our clues to the room next door (which was definitely empty for the night) and heading downstairs to start the murder mystery. Of the sixty or so guests who attended the evening, only 6-8 of them were nominated to inspect this crime scene. But of course, this small group of people included the woman who had checked into the bedroom next door. She walked in and said ‘This stuff was in my room!’ Dan quickly covered it up by insinuating that perhaps she had enjoyed one too many of the welcome drinks… But to be honest, my overriding question after all is said and done is - if you found a wine glass with lipstick all over it and a rug COVERED IN BLOOD in your room, wouldn’t you make a complaint?! Perhaps she thought everyone’s room had been decorated with some murder mystery themed items… now there’s an idea…

Dan in ‘The Blood Room’ at Peterhead Prison Museum - doesn’t even do it justice. Go see for yourself!

9. Peterhead Prison Museum

Can you think of a creepier venue for a murder mystery than a prison? Nope, neither can I. So when Peterhead Prison Museum got in touch to see if we’d be interested in performing there, we couldn’t have been more excited. And we have not been disappointed. So far, we’ve performed two brand new scenarios written especially for the prison and this year we’re doing our spookiest title, Things that go BUMP in the Night - tickets available soon!

Our first event was a scenario called Cell Block Thriller and we had a lot of fun writing it, preparing evidence and performing it on the night. One of our actors, Mike, had been cast as a slightly unhinged prisoner and to say he relished his part would be an understatement. He basically had free rein to do what he liked and boy did he take advantage of that. Crawling under tables to find a spare seat, heckling the guests and other actors, and basically doing whatever came into his head. And when it came time for someone to be murdered, poor Dan pulled the short straw. If you’ve ever been to the museum, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say ‘the blood room’. In fact, even if you haven’t been, I’m sure you’ll be able to imagine it. Poor Dan had to lie in this room for a loooong time. Alone. Yeah, no thanks. His stint in the blood room was made even longer by the fact that EVERY SINGLE guest wanted a look at him (perhaps encouraged by the other actors… sorry Dan!). In fairness, it’s the only venue that we were able to use as much blood as we wanted without worrying about making a mess. So we did!

The many faces of Maren Mitchell… before she was pushed down the stairs!

8. Pittodrie Stadium

As venues go, this was another special one. A murder mystery at a football stadium - Dan was in heaven! And it was a really great night. And as I type this, I’m wondering whether what I’m about to tell you was noticed on the night or not - if you were there, let us know! I’ve a feeling that some folk knew something had gone wrong. Also, to my fellow actors from that night - these exact details may not be exactly how you remember it, but let’s be honest, it was total chaos so forgive me if I haven’t got it exactly right!

So, when we arrived, we were looking for somewhere to ‘murder’ one of the actors, this time it was Maren’s turn. We had hoped we could have her body if not on the pitch, then in the stand so that when guests went into one of the boxes, they’d see her. However, it was October so by the time poor Maren would have been out there (in the freezing cold and rain), it would have been too dark to see anything. So we decided that the next best thing would be to pretend she’d been pushed down the stairs. The stone staircases in Pittodrie Stadium are pretty cold and creepy and looking down at her body at the bottom was super dramatic! It soon came to the point where we had to stage her ‘death’, so Dan, Maren and myself sneaked out of of the doors and tried to find the right staircase - there are three. We found it, got Maren into position, Dan ran all the way up the stairs to place the pieces of evidence we needed at the top, ran back down and he and I took the lift back up. Then the remaining actors all returned to the guests asking them if they’d seen Maren’s character. Another actor, Leigh, was supposed to leave the room at the staircase we’d planted her, run back in saying ‘She’s dead!’ and take some guests to the top of the stairs to find the clues. Except when she left, she couldn’t find Maren. She wasn’t at the bottom of the stairs. And the clues weren’t at the top. We’d used the wrong staircase. She called Dan out and left the rest of us in the room, just waiting for them to come back. And waiting. And waiting. He’d run down the stairs in a panic, found Maren eventually and then run back up the second staircase, only to find that the doors are fire doors and won’t open from the outside. We’re all suddenly aware of banging from the other side of the room, so I open the door for Dan to come bursting in, saying he’d found the body. Cue a bunch of guests running out of the room to follow him down the stairs (which was not part of the plan!), other actors frantically trying to figure out how to keep control of the room and poor Leigh (and Iain by this point!), still stuck in the other staircase because the door had shut behind them!

Eventually we got it all back on track and after we’d finished that section, we located Maren once again and got her back to our green room. She had absolutely no idea that anything had gone wrong!!

We’re all mad here - the team at The Burnett Arms

7. Burnett Arms

The Burnett Arms in Banchory has a brilliant function room that is pretty perfect for a murder mystery. The organisers chose Let’s Misbehave, which is our 1920’s/Great Gatsby themed scenario - one of my favourites.

Let’s just say this particular group of guests very much enjoyed the themed cocktails (and every other drink you can think of) during the course of the evening. We’ve had lots of murder mysteries where people have indulged in an alcoholic beverage or six and the outcome usually involves lots of noise, a few heckles and a lot of laughs. This one was off the scale! We don’t use microphones at our events because we feel it detracts from the immersive experience and makes it more like a formal performance. After this particular evening, all six actors were feeling pretty hoarse from having to project and sometimes full on shout to be heard! And the heckling? Spectacular. From people trying to catch us out on our accuracy with the decade we’d set the scenario, right down to one woman just randomly making noises to fill any tiny gap in our monologues, we were put to work that night! It was a challenge, but at no point did we lose the sense of fun and celebration and everyone went home with a smile on their face, even if they didn’t remember much about it the next day!

6. Durn House

Durn House was where we started. Back in November 2015, we put on our first ever murder mystery, Lights, Camera… Murder! and we were so nervous! When Louise at Durn House announced the event, the tickets sold out in 24 hours, so we ended up doing the same one the very next week! What a start to our journey.

Durn House is like a Cluedo board. It has a drawing room, a billiard room and everything in between. It’s absolutely made for a murder mystery and we used every nook and cranny in our numerous events there. And we had a blast doing it. The first one will always be special though. Again, we had quite a few guests making the most of the drinks on offer, but it just allowed them the confidence to ask questions and volunteer themselves to investigate the crime scenes - just what we needed! The feedback we received was so encouraging and it really helped us to work towards expanding our scenarios and selling our new service.

A couple of years after our first performances of Lights, Camera… Murder! the scenario was booked at a different venue. When I went to send the script on to the new cast, I was shocked to find how incredibly sparse the script was. In fact, I don’t think you could even call it a script. It had things like “Oscar will say something about this…”, “Scarlet and Bradley will have a fight here” - no actual lines, no real direction, nothing. It’s amazing how things have changed and evolved since that first event. Any RHP actors who are yet to perform Lights, Camera… Murder! - you’ll be delighted to know that Dan and I have since properly scripted it!!