Murder Mystery, lessons learned from parties

For Felicity's birthday this year she treated us all to a murder mystery called Sherlock In Homes. Performed by a Bristol based company called Sharp Teeth Theatre, in association with the Wardrobe Theatre, at was a Zoom hosted piece with five actors, set around a murder in a circus.

The Inspector (LeShart, see above) hosted things and explained the crime. Then we separated out into Breakout Rooms where each of the five suspects took it in turns to come in and be questioned by us. I was, of course, playing close attention because of what I intend doing with my Socks Murder Mystery in February. The big revelation for me was Polls, which I've now worked out how to do, and also the management of the Breakout Rooms, which I'm practicing. They had the advantage of 5 performers, so can keep multiple conversations going on at once, whereas I'll be having all the parts played by the two Socks (and both socks played by me, as well as having to run the Breakout rooms).

The performance lasted 90 minutes and had great improv, very well done by all the performers. After which we joined a new Zoom link and continued the party at Felicity's. It had much more of the feel of a party than other recent events we've done (eg our inter-Christmas party which lacked the buzz of my birthday party Treasure Hunt, probably the last really good one). Both Hev and I commented the next day that it felt like the morning after a proper party, in a good way.

It's still hard to make a Zoom event feel like a room full of people, with the ability to nip into a corner and have smaller chats, but there are worse ways to spend your time.

I am now busy applying everything I learned from last night, and from the technical issues of Friday night's Socks Burns show, to making the Socks Murder Mystery into the best show yet.

UPDATE: Completing a weekend of Zoom parties, on Monday night, Burns Night itself, Tilly & James threw a party. It was very successful indeed. Only three little bursts of games, one drawing the pictures you see above, another being a scavenger hunt, and the third being reading verses of Address To The Haggis between us, the rest was just chatting. Nearly three hours passed most pleasantly, and I wasn't even drinking, which is quite remarkable. James had yet another trick with Zoom I hadn't seen before, by which the viewer can enlarge or reduce the screens they're being shown. Not sure if that can be applied to the Socks shows, but experimenting continues. (I know how to do polls already, so we're learning).

Feb 12: Interactive Murder Mystery

https://quarrytheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873623223