Anything but a
disaster
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By Will Burress
The commercial
Christmas season seems to start earlier and earlier
every year. As soon as Strawberry Shortcake valentines
are removed from the shelves, those pesky Target
stockers are sneaking out the Christmas trees and candy
canes. For the Mayhem and Mystery theater group, the
holiday season started on November 8 with the premiere
of their new mystery dinner theatre show at the
Spaghetti Warehouse, Decorating Disaster.
Mayhem and
Mystery, which has been in existence since November
1999, has been performing mystery dinner theatre at the
Columbus Spaghetti Warehouse since February 2004. The
group consists of four members, but that doesn’t limit
their character list to a mere quartet; audience members
are recruited to join in on the holiday fun.
The premise of
Decorating Disaster allows for the amusing
interactivity: When it is announced that the design
contract for the new town library will be given to the
winner of a holiday decorating contest, residents of the
town jump into action, enlisting audience members to
help them in their design. The designs aren’t done on
any actual houses, but rather drawings of town
landmarks. The decorating medium? Magic markers.
At this point, the
restaurant takes a turn for kindergarten arts and crafts
hour. Our group’s task was to decorate a Shell Gas
Station with a holiday theme; we called the station
“Jingle Shells,” complete with octopus gas pumps,
starfish string lights, and fishy ornaments. The
competition was fierce; some rowdier members of the
audience took to peeking on other group’s designs and
cheering each other on (of course, with some
encouragement from the cast members).
The action takes
an intermission when the food is served. After dinner,
the cast comes back to finish the story.
One of the
characters is killed, and it’s up to the audience to
decide which of the remaining characters committed the
crime. Audience surveys are passed out, and each
audience member must describe who committed the crime,
and why and how they did it, a la the classic board game
(and not-so-classic movie based on the game) Clue.
While a part of
the cast goes back to tabulate the results, the other
half leads the audience in improvisational games (which,
given the, uh, well-hydrated state of the audience,
yield some pretty humorous outcomes). Awards are given
out for the best and worst solutions to the mystery, and
the cast gets the last laugh by reading the misled
audience members’ hypotheses aloud.
The cast works
well together, consistently feeding off of each other’s
energies as well as the energy of the audience. Even the
wait staff interacted with the actors, extending the
illusion of a town hall meeting where they serve food
(the characters constantly commented on this
eccentricity, which got old quickly). Overall, the show
worked well within the dinner theatre setting.
Mayhem and Mystery
is currently planning their January/February show,
Elimimate. Elimimate is a dating game
(hosted by Kissy Sutherland) where a superhero, a rock
star, a bowler, and a cook all compete for a date with
what writer Tamra Francis describes as “just a plain old
losery guy.”
Decorating
Disaster is a great way to get in the spirit of the
holidays, even if the turkey hasn’t made its way to the
oven yet.
Decorating
Disaster is performed every Tuesday night at 7:00 pm
through December 28 at the Spaghetti Warehouse in
Columbus. Dinner and the show is $21.95. More
information can be obtained by visiting
www.mayhemmystery.com.
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Originally Published: Issue 41 -
November 16, 2005
