This week we hosted a disco themed murder mystery dinner party.

Tools I used:

• Boogie Down Disaster - murder mystery kit with characters, goals, and instructions

• Disco ball, disco decorations, flowers, candles

• 3 course dinner by chef P

• Borrowed tables, chairs, and cutlery

• Our signature cacao potion

• Disco dance moves

Context

Last year we had a lot of fun hosting our first murder mystery dinner party “Murder in the Mansion” (when we were living in a mansion - for more details see context discussion for another event we did: Week 13 - Immersive Vampire Dinner). We wanted to repeat and improve on these immersive experiences in our new home.

The first time we bought a kit that had fun characters, but the event was highly scripted. In each of the three acts, characters had set questions to ask each other character, and canned responses. This made it very easy to participate, but didn’t leave as much wiggle room for people to make the characters their own.

So this time we got a different kit that contained only very loose character descriptions. Each character had a backstory, a secret, a piece of evidence, and a few goals for the evening, and the rest was up to the participants to invent and improvise as the evening progressed.

Another difference was that in the first kit, the murderer was chosen at random at the beginning of the night, so every character appears guilty and it was almost impossible to guess who it was. This time around the murderer was baked in to the script (as well as two characters who die during the course of the event), so the clues and evidence were possible to figure out. Less replay value, but a more consistent and cohesive plot.

Process

As people arrived, we gave them a name tag with their character name so other people would know who they are. Each name tag had one of four colors corresponding to a group. We started off the evening with a few rounds of I’m A Tree - a quick and easy improv game that encourages people to get out of their head and start improvising.

Once people were warmed up, we had our now traditional magic cacao ritual: one by one a person would collect their hot drink, pray to the disco ball, get their photo taken, drink, and become their character for the rest of the evening.

We stuck the polaroids on the wall:

The game was structured into three acts:

• the first act is about introducing yourself and getting the backstories of everyone else

• the second starts with the first murder and then requires sharing evidence and trading secrets

• the third has a second murder and has people formulating their guess of murderer and motive

Before each act, we handed out personal instruction cards with new info for that part, and hid a few ‘Ghost Hotline’ cards to let you communicate with the deceased (to get their evidence).

In between the first and second acts I led a 10 minute disco dance moves lesson based on this video. By the end of it everyone could do the Travolta point, the Hitchhiker, a version of the Hustle, and a few other small flourishes.

After the third act, but before we revealed the murderer, we transformed the dancefloor into a banquet space, with 16 chairs, tables, flower arrangements, and candles. We served a vegan shepherds pie, a beautiful fruity salad, and several loaves of freshly baked sourdough courtesy of one of our guests who is about to open a bakery. Unfortunately, and typically, we forgot to get photos of the feast, so you’ll have to trust me that it was glorious.

Finally, we had everyone vote for the murderer, the best dressed, and the best actor, and announced the verdict and prizes to shock and awe. We cleared the room again and cranked up the music and ended with a few hours of dancing.

Learnings

• We’ve always found it tricky to get an event to start on time - both because we’re never quite ready with all the last minute setup, and because people often arrive later than the start time (especially here in Mexico - see Monochronic vs Polychronic cultures). The first one we can improve on, but the second is somewhat out of our control. The result is that some people arrive early, and as we’re still a bit busy with prep, they are waiting around for the night ‘to start’. Of course people can chat and mingle, but we often invite people who don’t know each other and it helps to have a few activities/icebreakers to smooth out the beginning. Next time I’ll plan a few extra icebreakers that are ‘self-service’ ie I don’t have to facilitate them

Next steps

• Design a murder mystery with our own characters and plot