Upper Lake >> There was a mystery to be solved at the Tallman Hotel Saturday night — a murder mystery akin to a real life game of Clue.
At 6 p.m. guests gathered in their best 1930s attire for cocktails and appetizers in the Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake, where they chatted amongst themselves and got to know characters by the names of Atticus Flinch, Taylor Martin, Phoebe Swift, Victor Strike and Melanie Strike, portrayed by a group of actors with Lake County’s Murder Us Productions. Then guests made their way to the Tallman Hotel for dinner.
At the front door — suspiciously locked — the evening took its first turn. Gun shots rang out and Atticus Flinch, played by Bert Hutt, came stumbling onto the porch, a wound in his back. He promptly fell to the flooring, dead. Thus began a mystery that left guests warily eyeballing every actor in the hotel. Everyone was given clues, interrogated characters and tried to work out just who had killed Flinch.
It was all orchestrated by Hutt, the founder of Murder Us Productions, a live dinner theater company specializing in murder mysteries. Saturday’s event happened in conjunction with the Lake County Big Read, an annual month-long program intended to increase reading and community involvement. This year the program centered around Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” hence the 30s-themed mystery dinner.
There were odes to “To Kill a Mockingbird” scattered throughout the evening, from the obvious — the character of Atticus Flinch was an attorney from Monroeville, Alabama — to the subtle. Each character’s moniker was a type of bird.
But Hutt didn’t want the evening to take a serious turn. He kept the book’s heavy themes out of the script. “This is supposed to be entertaining and happy,” he explained. “Keep it light, that’s the trick.”
And to ensure no one thought a real murder went down at the Tallman Hotel, Hutt began the day by placing a call to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. He informed them there would be gunshots in Upper Lake later that evening.
Hutt and his wife crafted the script themselves. Though they didn’t write out specific dialogue, they came up with the plot arc plus the character’s back stories and motives. Though it sounds complicated, constructing a whodunit simple enough to figure out but challenging enough to take some time, Hutt said he didn’t have much difficulty. “I’ve been reading murder mysteries for a long time, pretty much all my adult life,” he said.
Plus, he’s obsessed with BBC murder mystery shows, everything from the costumes to the attitudes to the props. His entertainment preferences certainly prepared him for Murder Us Productions.
This year marked the eighth time Hutt put on a murder mystery at the Tallman Hotel. They happen every year the weekend before Halloween, so guests are in the mood to play dress up. He’s also hosted them at other locations as well, such as the Saw Shop Bistro and Wildhurst Vineyards in Kelseyville.
The actors are vital to making the whole thing work. They have to rely heavily on improvisation to sell their characters and expand upon the simple back stories they’re given. “I set up an outline and let them fill in the blanks and just sort of coach them,” Hutt said. “It takes a lot of talent and practice to be able to do that.”
For the actors, the murder mystery was a completely different experience, offering a unique amount of freedom. “What’s great is you really have to think on your feet real fast,” said Larry Richardson, who portrayed Taylor Martin.
Hutt agreed that while he enjoys acting with a script, cues and stage direction, there’s something special about improvisation. “I find there’s a little more creativity in the extemporaneous stuff,” he said. “You have to be right there involved in what’s going on and you have to listen to your fellow actors … and interact with the audience quickly.”
Audience participation and interaction was not only encouraged, but completely necessary. It’s another reason why the actors enjoy the experience so much. They just can’t get that close to the audience on stage. “It’s full contact theater,” said Laura Sammel, who played Phoebe Swift.
“And it’s not just one person,” Richardson added. “Everyone gets involved.”
It’s also a whole lot of fun watching guests try and figure out who committed to crime. “Being able to make people believe you’re guilty or innocent, it’s fabulous,” said Richardson.
The dining room was a babble of voices, accusations and suspicious questioning. Hutt left pencils and paper on each of the tables for guests to jot down their ideas as they worked through the mystery. Before the evening ended, every person in the room had spent a fair share of time interrogating and berating each of the actors. Often, Hutt and his fellow actors helped to nudge guests in the right direction, by throwing each other under the bus, or even themselves if the evening called for it.
So who killed Atticus Flinch? That would be Victor Strike, played by Rod Rehe, a mob man from San Francisco who did it to protect his wife, Melanie Strike, played by Laura Rehe. Melanie Strike had recently discovered her father was a doctor in Monroeville, Alabama. She’d paid him a visit and during the trip Strike and her father got into an argument which lead to an accident resulting in the doctor’s death. The death was the center story in a “newspaper” titled “The Tallman Tattler” (in a nod to Hutt’s love of mysteries, the doctor’s photo was actually that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Flinch found out about Melanie Strike’s involvement and Victor felt he had no choice but to kill the attorney to keep it quiet.
Six dinner guests got to the bottom of the mystery and Missy Johnson was the lucky guest to take home the top prize. At the end of the evening, everyone voted on best couples costume, which went to three-time murder mystery participants Joanna and Rudi Herz.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
