Glenda Goertzen
Prince Albert Daily Herald
PRINCE ALBERT – The murders that took place at Shananigan’s over the weekend drew a crowd of amateur sleuths, who, after studying clues and questioning suspects, voted on their choice of whodunit.
The winning of prizes for correct guesses was just one of the highlights of Off the Cuff Improv and Interactive’s ‘Murder First Class: An Interactive Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre’ at the bistro. It was this year’s second run of the show, the Prince Albert troupe having put on sold-out performances at the Station Arts Centre in Rosthern the previous weekend.
While the script for the Prince Albert performances was the same as those the troupe performed in Rosthern, director and producer Adreanna Boucher explained that audience participation can take the stories of the individual characters in unexpected directions.
“The story is always a little different depending on our audience, right? For example, the first night I ended up doing someone’s hair in the audience, and that’s how Vera ended up being a hairdresser. It was so bizarre.”
The plot centers around the murder of a lovely young lounge singer during a dinner in honour of visiting Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Conveniently, the dinner is attended by a detective who works throughout the evening to uncover the killer. Her suspects include the victim’s heartbroken ex-boyfriend, a drunk pianist with big dreams, his jealous wife, a nervous waiter, and a sly lounge manager.
With interactive dinner theatre, audience members who arrive early might find themselves called upon to take on a role, as with the couples who played the Diefenbakers. When asked how much time they were given to prepare for their roles, Boucher replied, “Zero. He walked in and got asked, ‘Hey, do you want to be the Prime Minister?’ and then he said yes, and his lovely wife was asked to be Olive Diefenbaker, and they got a little pin that said their name, and that was it. Same with Ricky Reynolds.”
Because the character of Ricky Reynolds was a suspect, he received several lines and information on his backstory. The Diefenbakers weren’t given lines, but at the end of the evening the Prime Minister did encourage the audience to vote in the next federal election.
The play is set in 1957, the year the Prime Minister made a visit to his home riding of Prince Albert. Audience members were invited to join the cast in wearing 1950s attire.
Boucher, who played Vera, the pianist’s jealous wife, was pleased with the weekend’s performances.
“You know, we had a lot of energy and the audience had a lot of energy. Just having that feedback from the audience is so lovely and helps us to do the best show that we can and lots of laughs, which was great. Yeah, and nothing got broken, so that’s a bonus.”
One item that did get broken was an enormous planter, apparently the murder weapon, that made up part of a startlingly realistic crime scene on the patio. Elizabeth Chamberlain played the victim. Chamberlain is an LGBTQ+ singer and dancer with a degree in Acting and a diploma of Theatre Arts. This was her first show with Off the Cuff and her first experience with interactive dinner theatre.
“I think that it’s more electric,” she said, comparing it to her previous acting experiences. “There’s just a feeling in the atmosphere. Everybody’s excited, everybody’s really paying attention to everything they’re doing, and they all want to get involved, you know. They always want to solve the mystery themselves, and so they’ll ask you questions, and you have to come up with unique answers and answers that make sense and that follow the story in the heat of the moment. I think that people are just really positive and supportive. Like they want you to succeed even more because they want themselves to succeed, they want themselves to get the right answer at the end of the play.”
Boucher also mentioned the comparison between stage shows and interactive theatre.
“You still get an energy transfer from the audience to the stage when you’re doing a stage show, but it’s so much more intense when you’re doing interactive, and you’ve rehearsed it. It’s just, I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s so energizing and invigorating to see part of that, and it just makes me feel really good as the writer of the show to know, like, ‘Okay, so yeah, this lands, and this lands, and this lands, and they like this, and they like this character.’”
Boucher is the founder of Off the Cuff Improv & Interactive. For her, acting, directing, producing and writing is a labour of love that she makes time for outside of a full-time job.
“I enjoy being part of a team that’s working together collectively to tell a story. We all, the actors and I, we all are close and love each other and just have a close bond while we’re doing a show like this. I love interacting with the audience and seeing how much they’re enjoying it and being right up close to them and watching them enjoy it.”
The cast and crew will have a busy year. Boucher will be offering improvisation workshops for all ages. Mathew Derworiz, who played the hapless waiter Gavin, will appear later this summer in Broadway North’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’ as The Wizard. Other members of the cast and Stage Manager Kim Morrall are involved with the Odyssey Productions theatre group.
Off the Cuff plans to do more interactive dinner theatre in Prince Albert.
“Prince Albert has a lot of really, really talented people to offer in the realm of theatre and live performance,” said Chamberlain. “I think that people would underestimate that if they didn’t know. I think that there are a lot of people that are not only extremely talented but extremely driven and passionate about theatre here. And so it really just fosters a wonderful environment for live performance in theatre here.”
The show was supported by the Lakeland District of the Saskatchewan Seniors Fitness Association. Photos from the performance can be found on Off the Cuff Improv and Interactive’s Facebook page, and more information about upcoming performances and workshops can be found on their website.
