A Night to Dismember
CMU holds its first murder mystery event
Round tables and white chairs littered the maroon floor of the Bovee University Center Rotunda Room. As eerie music played from the speakers, students looked over the maps and character sheets on the tables before them.
This was the start of a long and dark night to remember — or, "A Night to Dismember," Central Michigan University's first murder mystery event that happened on Oct. 29.
The event was hosted by CMU Program Board in partnership with Student Activities and Involvement and an outside organization called Neon Entertainment. Neon Entertainment were the ones who provided the plot and trained the actors.
Kendall Fowler, one of the directors for Program Board, said he was excited to host an event like this.
"It's really interesting because we've never done something like this before," Fowler said. "If it goes well, we'd love to bring it back next year."
The plot went as such:
Vampire and Lord of Castle Von Morgue, Neville Aster-Night was found burnt to a crisp in the sunroom. He had several ribs broken and was missing his heart. Near his body were several clues to his death, such as a book of spells with a page missing, a silver bullet lodged in the doorframe and a strip of linen.
There were eight cast members and "suspects" for the murder:
- Madame Aretha (Played by Zaida Gromko): A fortune teller, secret vampire and secretly Queen of the Undead Mafia
- The Monster (Played by Delaney Murphy): A Frankenstein-inspired fashion model, who is secretly a hitman for the Undead Mafia
- Dr. Angela Deth (Played by Christian Dunn): A psychotic dentist, who secretly sold her soul to the Devil's Brother
- Devil's Brother (Played by Aiden Verbison): The Devil's younger brother, who is a gambling addict
- Hannibal (Played by Arthur Pennington): A kosher cannibal who is secretly a werewolf and has a crippling medical condition
- The Witch (Played by Bryanna Voss): A witch who secretly sells opium and has a cripplingly medical condition
- The Mummy (Played by Isabel Walton): a 3,000 year old mummy, cursed to suck the youth out of people for himself
- Lizzie (Played by Elizabeth Baldwin): Aster-Night's fiance and the owner of Motel California, which is secretly going out of business
The event consisted of partial storytelling and acting elements, as well as one-on-one interviews with the cast members. Guests had to use the information they gained from both of these sets of dialogue, as well as slips of paper with clues on them, to determine who the killer was.
Figuring it out wasn't an easy task, though, since all eight monsters had reasons for wanting Aster-Night dead. Many details of the host's personal life came out, such as his affairs with The Witch and Madame Aretha, and how he had put a hit out on Dr. Angela Death's lover.
Along with this, many side plots were occurring that served as motives for killing Aster-Night, like the mummy needing a human sacrifice to return to Egypt and how the Devil's Brother was in enormous amounts of debt to Aster-Night and a known serial killer.
In the end, it was revealed that almost everyone had attempted to murder the host at some point that night. The Monster had a hit on him, but was mistakenly stabbed by Dr. Angela Death who thought he was Aster-Night. Additionally, the Devil's Brother attempted to kill him twice, but an asthma attack stopped him. The Mummy, in need of a sacrifice, lined every floor with sand for the sacrificial ritual, except for the sunroom he was found in.
The Witch and Lizzie were rare exceptions, as they only wanted to turn the lead pipes into gold and make a profit off of them after both of their businesses started failing .
Madame Aretha also did not want to kill him, but she was involved in his "murder." This is where the plot twist was revealed: Aster-Night and Madame Aretha performed a body-swapping spell that night, so that he could escape some of the troubles following him. In her body, Aster-Night knocked Madame Aretha out and chained her up in the sunroom, but it appeared as if Aster-Night was the one chained.
His brother, Hannibal, found the body, and since he needed a heart transplant from a blood relative, did surgery to remove the heart for himself. He mailed the heart off so he could have the surgery in the morning, but was caught by Dr. Angela Deth who tried to shoot him with a silver bullet.
In conclusion, Hannibal was the one to "kill" Aster-Night, but Aster-Night had truly escaped through Madame Aretha's body.
Pennington, who played Hannibal, said even he had no idea who the killer was going into the event. He said when the audience found out, so did the cast members.
"I think that made it easier to lie," he said. "'Cause if I had known, I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face."
While Pennington said he has experience in theatre, he and other cast members didn't get their roles and start rehearsing until 5 p.m. that night, meaning they only had two hours to get into character. He said he and other cast members practiced accusing one another, and learned about their characters throughout the event.
"Once I found out I was a werewolf, I started getting into this role of being stoic and hating vampires," he said. "It was super fun learning the character."
Guests who attended the event were stunned by the plot twist. One of these guest was Sarah Spearing, a freshman, who said she has attended murder mystery events with her friends back home before.
"I liked it," she said. "I have a friend playing in it, and they only had two hours to rehearse. If they had more time, it probably would've went smoother."
Spearing successfully guessed Hannibal was the killer, but still said the twist shocked her.
"I was not expecting a body swap," she said. "That made it very interesting."
As the night drew to a close and students filed out of the room, cast members hung back to chat excitedly about the big reveal and compliment one another's acting skills. For them, and for guests, it will likely be a night to dismember... no, remember.
