Murder at Merkister Hall: A Mystery Come Alive
Written by Kayla Delaney
Imagine a live-action, interactive murder mystery, unfolding before your eyes. Like Cluedo, if it were a play or a roleplay game. If that sounds like something you’d like, I highly recommend watching a performance or getting a kit box of Murder at Merkister Hall.
In October of 2024, I went to see a play, put on by The Man in the Moon, a company in Guildford that runs theatre workshops for all ages and puts on plays and events for their students to perform. In this case, I saw their production of Murder at Merkister Hall.
Murder at Merkister Hall is, originally, not a play, but an interactive game kit, which can have between 6 and 20 players —one of those players, mainly their character, is a murderer. It can be purchased and downloaded online and played virtually or in person.
It’s the 1930s, business is growing again after the Great Depression, and the Balderdashes are hosting yet another dinner party at their manor, Merkister Hall, to share their good fortune and cuisine. The evening seems to be going well, until they find the butler, Leversham, has been murdered in the Billiard room.
Among the Balderdashes and their guests is the Detective, a character who drives the main investigation by revealing clues and asking questions; they can be a player, or a video and audio recording, provided with the kit. All players can ask questions, and are just as much a part of solving the murder, as no one knows the answer but the detective and the murderer. Only after all the questions have been answered, and the players have given their guesses, is the truth revealed.
In this case, the game had an audience. 6-8 tables, each with eight people seated, having dinner, asking questions and deducing the murderer alongside the characters. The main characters —the Balderdash couple, and their eight guests – were sitting at a table in the middle, around which our tables were placed, an audience on all sides of their stage. It felt like a live-action visual novel, but played alongside other people —each table was given printed questions to ask in rounds and were asked to submit their guess of who the murderer was as a group. I knew only two of my fellow table guests, but the play pushed us to talk to each other and discuss the clues we were given.
We were also given paper to write our notes if desired —I used six pages in total, on both sides. Safe to say, I found it all quite interesting.
It was an odd but intriguing experience – an interactive play, or a live-action puzzle game, is not what I expected when I was told about Murder at Merkister Hall. I was told there was audience participation, but I anticipated it would be like a pantomime. Instead, I was made a detective for an evening, working with my table, or my team, to solve the mystery.
The actors had to stay in character even during the intermissions, as they approached the audience, proclaimed their innocence and were just as in the dark as we were. It was quite fun to watch them play their roles, with all the context and history that their characters came with. They performed well, and I loved getting to know them through the audience questions and their interactions with each other. I also loved how involved we all were in the story and the mystery.
Once again, I recommend going to see any performances of Murder at Merkister Hall —it’s interesting and engaging, for cast and audience alike. Or you can play it for yourself – the game kit is available online, alongside various other murder mystery games for parties on the same website, from Red Herring Games. If you’re especially creative, I highly recommend planning and hosting a murder mystery party of your own; what better way to get to know your guests than a mystery game?
To read another review from Insanity Radio go here!
Written by Kayla Delaney, Edited by Paige Tamasi, Photography of ‘Revelry 4’ by Sam Loyd, Published by Paige Tamasi.