A good place for a murder

SUN, SAND AND MURDER: The sun is shining, you’re staying at a Pacific Island resort with family members Dave Newsham, Paul Stuart, Natasha Ashworth, Angela Stuart, Julie McPhail, Paula Hatten, Dunstan Dowsing, Mike Jones, Arran Dunn, Dorothy Fletcher and Fraser Grout — what could go wrong? To find out, book a seat for Musical Theatre Gisborne’s interactive whodunnit in which everyone has a motive but there can be only one murderer — and it is your job to deduct who he or she is. The plot will thicken. It always does. Picture supplied

A PACIFIC island provides the setting for Musical Theatre Gisborne’s interactive murder mystery Sun, Sand and Murder.

Written and directed by MTG member Dorothy Fletcher, the whodunnit centres on a group of people who go to the island for the reading of a will.

Characters in the comedy-based murder mystery are either part of the family who are on the island for the will reading or are running the resort.

“The only thing on this island is a resort,” says Fletcher.

“On the other side of the island is the Greater Spotted Ouzlum Bird. It comes indirectly into the story.”

The family is very dysfunctional, says Fletcher who plays the murder victim’s widow.

As murder mystery convention dictates, every one of the eleven characters has a motive. Sun, Sand and Murder will run for six nights.

Because of the extended season, a different murderer will feature every night.

Two musicians are involved in the show and words in songs by acts such as Genesis, Juice Newton, Ragamuffin and others will be relevant to the plot.

“Until now we have always run murder mysteries for one night and with no music,” says Fletcher.

Given the interactive nature of the show, in which actors stay in character while they mingle with the audience to help them with their inquiries, the show will be different every night.

The plot line and setting will remain consistent but some improvisation will be called for as actors answer audience members’ questions.

Funds raised from the murder investigation will go towards a new roof for the MTG club rooms which is where Sun, Sand and Murder takes place.