How would your spouse describe love?

What is your favorite relaxation activity?

Couples invited onstage are asked such questions during Mayhem & Mystery’s The Mating Game.

"If the husbands answer incorrectly, the wives will hit them just like they used to do on the old TV show The Newlywed Game," said Jerry Francis, managing director of Mayhem & Mystery.

With dinner-theater whodunits, sometimes nobody "does it" better than the audience.

It "can set the pace of the show," said Bill Saunders, producer and artistic director of Cloak & Dagger Dinner Theatre, the oldest central Ohio troupe of its genre.

The company, which began 13 years ago as the Mystery Cafe at the Jai Lai restaurant, performs Fridays and Saturdays at the Morse Banquet & Conference Center.

"Some people come just to be entertained and laugh at the comedy," Saunders said, "and others try to follow along and actually solve the mystery."

People are enjoying Cloak & Dagger’s Mumm’s the Word because of its Prohibition-era setting, music and "speak-easy atmosphere," Saunders said.

Participation is encouraged, but "No one is under any pressure to participate if they don’t feel like it."

Theresa Flais, founder of the Theatre Lab, agreed about the value of participation.

"The audience is 90 percent of our shows because if they’re having a great time participating and clapping, then everybody else is having a good time," she said.

Flais produces, directs, writes and often appears in her Theatre Lab shows at the Buckeye Hall of Fame Cafe.

"With this kind of theater, the actors are right on top of the audience, and you have to get them going."

At Mayhem & Mystery, the goal is "getting the audience involved any way we can," Francis said.

His wife, Tamra, is artistic director of the Dayton company, with husband and wife co-writing most of the shows and producing an original piece every two months. Shows are scripted but heavy on audience participation.

Founded in 1999 but expanding into Columbus only last year, Mayhem & Mystery performs interactive comedy-mysteries on Tuesdays at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Columbus, on Mondays at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Dayton and once a month each at the Manchester Inn in Middletown and Cristabell’s Cooking Company in Beavercreek.

The interaction with cast members keeps Julie Engle going back to Mayhem & Mystery, where she has seen six shows.

"I always go with someone because that makes it a lot more fun," the 23-year-old said.

"The audience involvement brings up the energy level and makes it more exciting. You really feel like you’re a part of the performance."

In Holiday With the Mob, Mayhem & Mystery’s last show, the troupe invited four or five people to stand up and audition to be the godmother’s bodyguards by "making a mean face or saying something threatening in Italian," Mr. Francis said.

The Francises play one of the couples in The Mating Game, which will open Tuesday.

"It’s a spoof on the old Newlyweds TV game but with a murder-mystery twist," Mr. Francis said.

The 8-year-old Theatre Lab, formerly the resident company at the Spaghetti Warehouse, attracts loyal audiences because "People like how personable we are as actors," Flais said.

She wrote, directs and will appear in Rehearsal From Hell (opening Jan. 25), about a husband-and-wife team of theater has-beens who put on a play but have to hire a B-movie action star and a soap-opera star (Flais) to attract audiences.

"We’ll go up and talk to people and get information that we add to the show.

"When we mingle, we get a good feel for the audience, who might have the most fun going onstage with us, and who will be the most verbal and loud enough to project well."

To boost participation, Theatre Lab actors remind theatergoers of the "rules" at the start of each performance.

"We tell them we might pick them out to stand onstage or stand up in front of everyone. We tell them to leave your inhibitions at the door — because people can arrive a little tense, especially their first time. And we encourage them to drink up because it gets funnier."

mgrossberg@dispatch.com