Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Review: Murder Mystery Dinner Theater at Zio Fraedos - Murder On the Oriental Rug

Oh no! A beloved superstar has been murdered! With many suspects and everything going horribly wrong, the detective has a tough case ahead of him. . . until the director calls cut and the real mystery begins! The scene is set by a troupe of actors dreaming of their names in lights on Broadway until they find out that their director has other ideas for them. In this twist of a whodunnit by Look Out World Events, the audience at Zio Fraedos was tasked with solving the murder of a character played by an actor. . . played by an actor?



Nosing around on Groupon one day I stumbled upon a deal that I had never seen before: discounted tickets to a murder mystery dinner theater! Naturally, I had to go. Grabbing a pair of tickets for myself and my date, I excitedly awaited for the fun that comes with any sort of murder mystery party. What's more is that this would be the first one that I got to participate in rather than host in years! I was practically pacing the house in excitement for weeks until the fateful day arrived.

While the show itself was very fun, the event was a logistical nightmare. I am going to begin with this as it affects what I am actually able to review from the event. When we arrived at Zio Fraedos, my reservation for the event apparently didn't actually save us seats, so my date and I (and four other people with the same problem) were denied entrance to the event. After waiting outside for about 30 minutes, we were finally taken to two seats that had magically appeared. . . at a reserved table for a birthday party. Not only were we obviously unwelcome at the reserved table, but the first act (of two or three) had just finished. Now we were left guessing what the plot was even about and without crucial information as to who the murderer was. Additionally, we had paid about $50 or more per ticket on Groupon for VIP seating, entrance, pictures, and other perks, of which we only received one (and we had to go looking for it after the event). Naturally, though, with all bad experiences come lessons learned that I hope to invoke in the future: Don't sell everyone VIP tickets; make them limited. If charging a significantly higher price for special tickets, ensure that the buyers receive the perks. Only take reservations for the sake of reserving people a spot.

And now for the review of the actual murder mystery!

Murder on the Oriental Rug by Look Out World Events

Murder on the Oriental Rug is the story of a troupe of actors looking to find their way to Broadway as the cast of a new murder mystery play. Things go awry, though, when they find out that their Director has other plans for them and one of the actors decides to take matters into their own hands. . .

First, I would like to say that I was very much entertained during the actual acts of the show. The acting was fantastic, the movement of events was engaging, and the writing definitely gave the show a unique and fun feel.  There was a lot of laughter from the audience, and the comedy was very much of the quality expected.

The writing was certainly impressive with two intertwined plots being presented in a coherent manner with the surprise twist at the end. The story unfolded with scenes of the play showing the discontent slowly growing between the actors and the director, when at the end the murder is revealed. While the intertwined plots were engaging, the twist created much confusion among the guests. After spending the whole evening trying to solve one mystery and then suddenly being told to solve a completely different one involving an entirely different set of characters, the tables were abuzz with questions about what character's names were and what they were even supposed to be solving. My date and I even asked one of the company's hosts what the characters' names were and they were unable to provide us with any information. Stylistically, the twist and double plot were amazing and unique - definitely providing that shock found in mysteries. Logistically, however, it just left the people around me confused and at a disadvantage when it came to the ultimate purpose of the event: solving the murder.

The characters themselves were not even all that engaging. Most of the scenes portrayed the actor characters playing their characters in their play, but very little time was spent actually developing the actor characters' personalities. In the end, it was found that we were actually supposed to be investigating the actor characters, not the characters in their play, but, unfortunately, because there was so much time spent on the unimportant aliases, there was very, very little to go off of when trying to figure out the identity of the murderer. I was far more invested in the characters in their play than the actual actor characters.

At the end of the evening the ballots were handed out and the guests were instructed to write the name of the guilty character and their motive on the sheet. Not only were the people around me unsure about the names of the characters, but no one knew anything about the characters in question. It seemed like all of the characters had the same motive and there was no 'aha!' moment or clue that led to any sort of differentiation between the characters' eligibility. When the winners were finally revealed, the solution wasn't even anything alluded to in the plot - in fact, there was no solution. It was apparently all up to the audience to determine an interesting and unique answer. If there is no solution, what is the point of sitting there for 3ish hours thinking over the actions happening and storylines? It is like reading to the end of a mystery novel and the last line of the book is "Now you decide who did it!". The reading is obsolete because there is no solution.The purpose of murder mysteries is so that the reader/observer/participant can see the solution unfold and solve it for themselves!

Again, I really did have fun when my night wasn't being bogged down by a lack of a solution and problems unrelated to the show. I would definitely go to one of their events again, however I probably would not buy a VIP ticket and would watch for sheer entertainment value, not for solving the murder.

If interested in buying tickets for one of their next events - which I would definitely recommend - that can be done here.

If anyone else attended the event and has any comments, please feel free to share below! I would love to hear what other people thought of their evening of mystery.

♥Princessofherworld

1 comment:

  1. Smoking Gun Entertainment is a part of Terry Shane Murder Mystery Calgary-based Company with troupes in Edmonton and Vancouver as well. They are a fully interactive, improv-based theatre company which can travel anywhere in Western Canada. For more information visit here

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