Congleton NWR
Murder Mysteries
We're very proud to include among our members Linda Messham, the author of two murder mysteries especially written for women's groups to read or perform.
Sometimes murder mysteries can be hard to do – you
have a few notes on your character, and a bit of information about what you’ve
been doing and then you have to make it up.
Linda has scripted almost everything, making it much easier to take
part.
You can act them out properly or
just read them through from an armchair.
You could combine some of the smaller parts or borrow a couple of men if you don't have enough
members; if you have too many, an
information sheet giving a few simple facts enables everyone to be
involved. They also work as a
rehearsed performance on a stage for a larger number of people.
The first play is called "Ladies Only Eat One Biscuit", which has 10 parts.
The second is "Our Own Miss Bertram", which has 12 parts.
They each contain two acts - a longer one telling most of the story, and a shorter one which explains whodunnit! A break for refreshments between the two enables people to ask questions of the characters and try to decide who the murderer is.
If your group would like to have a go, Linda hires out sets of the plays to NWR groups for a small fee (to cover printing and production costs). You can contact her at lmessham@googlemail.com.
These pictures were taken at the first performance of her second play, Our Own Miss Bertram:
Concentration, as we all read the introduction to our character
Action is underway - no idea yet whodunnit ....
Police are here .... (plain clothes!)
This was the first play, Ladies Only Eat One Biscuit ...
