Inside a Sheraton Hotel ballroom, guests ate a three-course meal while actors performed a murder mystery style show to the Syracuse community.

On Sunday, The Mystery Company, an interactive theatrical group based in Rochester, performed a show where audience members were tasked with finding out who stole the British Crown jewels in a classic murder whodunit style of mystery.

Audience members were assigned to figure out who killed a few characters in the story. Actors were dressed in exuberant garb to match the dinner-show’s 1930s theme.

Dennis Cammillerl, whose daughter was a part of the show, said that he thought the actors were very “comical” and that they did a great job.

“I thought the performance was really good. I wish the acoustics here were a little better, so I could understand the actors a little better. But I thought the actors were very wonderful, and they did a good job,” Cammillerl said.

Actors learned audience members names and incorporated them into the performance. The actors also called out individual audience members to be part of the intricate crime.

The show broke twice for dinner to be served. Audience members took this as an opportunity to discuss who they thought the culprit was.

The performers created a motley cast that included characters like a quick-talking, yellow-dressed mafia bodyguard named “Ice Man,” and a lofty British detective named Miss Marbles — a sly homage to Agatha Christie’s character, Miss Marple.

Many of the actors went into the audience trying to persuade them of who the culprit was, all while cracking jokes. The actor playing “Ice Man” would scream “cut them off” to audience members who thought he was the culprit.

The character was played by an actor named Daniel Mittermeyer, who said that he was excited to be in Syracuse after not being in the city since 2006, and that the show was a wonderful welcome back. He also said that interacting with the audience was his favorite part of performing in the show.

“We change up the themes. We’ll do a western theme and we’ll do a Casablanca theme. We’re doing a mixture of Hitchcock next. So, we vary up our performances,” Mittermeyer said.

Among the cast of enthusiastic characters was Mr. Bigg’s partner, Tiffany. After he had died, guests speculated if she had done it for her infatuation of money and diamonds. It was only later when some guests were surprised that it was actually the bodyguard who killed the loaded mafia leader.

Following the death of Mr. Bigg, the character named Inspector Closseau, a riff on the detective in “The Pink Panther” asked the audience who they thought committed the crime. Some audience members meticulously went over the details of what happened during the show, all while actors sneaked around from table to table trying to change their minds.

Even when audience members were speculating who the culprit was, actors talked among themselves in character.

Some audience members were dressed in era-set clothing, going as far as wearing tuxedos and dressing as flappers. Gina Pascarella, who is a Syracuse resident, dressed up for the occasion with her friends. Some wore suits with suspenders while others donned flapper headdresses.

Pascerella said she thought the performance was set in the ‘20s, but she saw that it was set in the ‘30s when she got there. She also said she was a big fan of Mittermeyer’s “Ice Man” character.

At the end, when trying to find out who the true culprit was, each table of audience members wrote poetic, rhyming answers that they spoke aloud.

When the culprit was revealed, Miss Marbles yelled out “case closed,” ending the mystery performance.

Published on October 27, 2019 at 10:43 pm

Contact Christopher: cscargla@syr.edu | @chrisscargs