Rotorua Little Theatre's upcoming 'whodunit' show will have audience laughing

The Game's Afoot will be showing at Shambles Theatre. Photo/File

Locals who check out the Rotorua Little Theatre's upcoming production will beat the winter blues laughing along to the whodunit show.

The Game's Afoot will be on at the Shambles Theatre between August 23 to September 2.

Director Richard Rugg says The Game's Afoot is a comedy murder mystery.

It is about a group of actors who share Christmas together in a huge mansion and someone starts to kill them.

Richard says one of the characters, William Gillette, was a real person who made his name playing Sherlock Holmes on stage.

In the show, William assumes the persona of Holmes to track down the killer before the next victim appears.

There are eight people in the cast and they have been working on it for about four weeks so far.

He says he decided to take up this show because he has not directed one in the comedy murder mystery style in a long time and thought it could be fun.

Richard says the audience will enjoy it because there is both spooky and fun moments - "It's a nice all-round show".

"During winter they can get out of house and see a fun show."

What he enjoys about directing is tying together different aspects and influences into a unified whole, and forming how the story is told.

"The story is written by the writer, but there's ways you can tell the story and that's your personal stamp as a director."