For our meeting on Wednesday, we borrowed one of Linda Messham’s brilliant Murder Mystery plays : “The Walking Group.”
Having done one a couple of years ago, we had a good idea of how it is organised. It might take a little effort to set up but, as Linda sends out some very simple and easy to follow instructions, all went swimmingly on the night.
By pulling names from a ‘hat’, we managed to allocate 11 members to the 11 individual parts. Though it is do-able with less than the required number, it’s not quite as good if someone has to pretend to be two different characters – things can get a tad confusing! And concentration is key in amateur dramatics…
We even had an appreciative audience of 3, who cheered and applauded enthusiastically. One of them was a potential member, who – should she decide to join us – will be challenged to forget the character names she knew us as all evening….
It has to be said that a couple of our willing actors had to really bring out the inner thespian, being absolutely nothing like the characters they were expected to portray. Full marks go to ‘Babs’ and ‘Carol’ on that count!
The scene was set, the chairs on the ‘stage’ arranged in the required arrangement, everyone arrived with the correct props and costume where required (nice one, ‘Jo’ 😉), the Green Room was my dining room (more chairs), identity badges were donned, and off we went.
Throughout, there was much prompting, sitting when one should be standing, standing when one should be sitting, entering and leaving, mutterings of “Is it me?”, and a general air of concentration interspersed by the odd lapse into hysterics. During an interval tea break where suggested, we tried to fathom who might be the culprit, though the reveal revealed that none of us are very good sleuths after all.
Hey ho. Maybe if we borrow another one in a year or two….?
It was great fun, and to be recommended as a really good alternative meeting – look for “Hire a Play” on this page: https://nwr.org.uk/planning-your-groups-activities/
Thank you, Linda! 😊
