By Paul McConnell

Lifford Players’ drama group in County Donegal hascompleted the first of a series of murder mystery dinner plays in the Old Courthouse in Lifford this week.

The plays, which resume in January, involve audience members watching and interacting with performers. They are tasked with ascertaining who the killer is among a list of suspects, and their decision can affect the end of the play. The audience must collaborate on establishing the killer, with the ending able to be rotated after each performance, keeping even cast members on their toes.

Edward Flanagan, who directed the performances and stars as the gruff detective who guides the audience, said:

“Tonight, the Lifford Players are presenting a murder-mystery dinner, where guests enjoy a three-course meal while the story unfolds around them through a series of live scenes. The story unfolds in short scenes during the starters, the main course and dessert, with clues and red herrings dropped along the way for the audience to piece together.

“As the evening goes on, we drop clues and red herrings, and the audience use score sheets to try to work out who the murderer is.”

Mr Flanagan, who has directed several plays with the Lifford Players, said the interactivity set the murder mysteries apart.

“The big difference with our show is that it happens around the audience, not on a stage, which makes it far more immersive and exciting. Audience members can question the suspects and question me as the detective, and some people take it incredibly seriously — they take notes, come up with theories, and ask endless questions.

“It gets people out of the house for something different and worthwhile, and it’s always a packed house. If you don’t love it, you must love staying at home far too much!”

The murder-mystery progresses throughout the meal. A Sherlock Holmes-style detective helps the audience to navigate the investigation.

The story follows the murder of a businessman who had plansto turn a once family run business into a large department store. In place of Christmas bonuses, the employees receiveredundancy notices. When the businessman is murdered, suspicion falls on each of them.

Sean Mullan, technical director of the performance, discussed the difficulty around staging such a production. He pointed to the interactivity as being one of the hardest elements to prepare for.

“Obviously with something like this, you have to be careful with the technical aspect. You have an audience that will be walking through and sitting in the performance space, and that’s a challenge in and of itself. Then you have to figure out how you can use the lighting and the sound, those technical elements of the theatre, somewhere that isn’t a theatre.

“That’s been the most challenging aspect really. Keeping the audience members safe, while still using technology to enhance the performance. Planning is an extremely important part of technical theatre, and that interactivity can be difficult, impossible even, to prepare for.

“We had a great team of staff from the Old Courthousehelping as well. They were very supportive of us performing around them. The Courthouse has a rich history of performance, even after it stopped being a courthouse!”

Lifford Courthouse served as a courthouse from 1746 until 1938. It was renovated into a heritage centre in 1994, and has since hosted several theatrical productions, both in its courtroom, and the adjoining dungeons.  It is famous as the scene of the sentencing and execution of murderer, John “Half Hanged” MacNaghten in 1761.

Tickets for the Murder-Mystery Night are on sale now at the Old Courthouse, Lifford. They can be booked online, and arepriced at €50 each.