Review: WHODUNIT? AN IMPROVISED MURDER MYSTERY at Contemporary Theater Company
Production runs through April 12th, 2025.
The 8th season of Contemporary Theatre Company's "Whodunit? An Improvised Murder Mystery" kicked off with ham, a knife and a whole lot of serious laughter.
The actors are typically switched up each Saturday throughout the 12-week run. This particular performance featured seven hysterical actors including Cathleen Carr, making her second Whodunit performance; Madeline England making her third performance as well as newbie Whodunits Jan Krause Green, Jessamyn LeClair, Tina Moore, Edwin O'Connor and Ryan Sekac.
Set on a remote private island shrouded in intrigue, the story starts with just a few essentials: the actors know their character names and that someone won’t make it through the night. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess what twists and turns will unfold. While the characters are debating why they are on the island at all, there's a random sliced ham on a table and no one knows why its there. When openly discussing the ham, Sekac, who plays an hysterical Thomas Van Steiff, the impromptu host of the evening, he counters "I came to the realization that there's more in the workd then broccoli". But the audience feels even he doesn't know why the ham is even at his own table!
When Carr, who plays an impatient Lucinda Wilde, ends up stabbed to death, it could be any of their faults! But once the audience chooses who they though killed her, you realize you are one of a crowd of people who don't a clue who the hell killed Wilde.
This creative performance included one of actors being a secret alien sent to study the human race before being replaced on the fifth year. "How do you know if an alien isn't better than a human?"Madeline England who plays the sarcastic Casey Craven said. An alien in a murder mystery? Only in Wakefield....
CTC General Manager Maggie Caddy said people often ask, ‘Do you really make it up as you go?’ and she stressed that that is certainly the case. They told the near capacity crowd-who attended in the middle of a major snowstorm- to please come to multiple performances, and they’ll see just how wildly different each show can be. We have no doubt.
Audiences are even able to collect exclusive Whodunit? trading cards at each performance as keepsakes!
For fans of mysteries like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, this improvised production offers a delightful blend of suspense, comedy, and creativity. The stakes are high, the laughs are plentiful, and the outcome is entirely in the hands of the performers.
These performances continues to be a huge hit with my teens who hate just about everything, so kudos to CTC for continuing to pull the laughs out of the improv air and making every performance an original and incredibly funny murder mystery extravaganza! We can't wait for the next one next week!
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