Mistletoe, Mayhem and Murder

MURDER MYSTERY: A new play by Dorothy Fletcher is on the horizon, but who dunnit? Picture by Sarah Olsen

by Jack Marshall

It’s Christmas Eve and the firm Macmillan and Sons is having a party. Staff are getting up to mischief, and unfortunately, someone has to die.

In this office, like many work environments, “almost everybody has got a reason either to be killed by several people or to kill several people”, said playwright and director Dorothy Fletcher.

This year Unity Theatre is hosting Dorothy’s play, Mistletoe, Mayhem and Murder, a whodunnit play where the audience has to guess the murderer by the end of the show.

In each performance, a different Macmillan and Sons staff member will decide they have had enough and take to murdering a workmate.

“My favourite thing about the play is seeing people come in and take these characters and make them their own, even though some of them are a bit way out. I just love the way they react to each other and get inside their characters.”

Dorothy has penned plenty of books so writing a play every year is no problem. She has published six books on Amazon as e-books.

She has written the last eight murder mystery plays for local theatres since 2015.

She first comes up with an idea, then often goes for a coffee with her co-workers Arran Dunn and Paula Hatten to discuss the best ways of committing murder.

“Many coffee shop patrons have been a little bit amazed at the way we talk about killing people off.”

Mistletoe, Mayhem and Murder, Unity Theatre, November 26 – December 4. Tickets on sale at Gisborne i-SITE or on eventfinda.co.nz