Jawnts: Mr. Dickens in the study with a rope
The Ebenezer Maxwell house in Germantown, the perfect setting for a murder mystery. Courtesy Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion
The problem with Charles Dickens' novels is that the good guys are almost always terribly dull, but persist in winning in the end anyway. Wouldn't it be more fun if, say, Oliver Twist met a grisly end and the reader had to figure out who was on the right end of the bludgeon (or pistol)?
The 154-year-old mansion started the murder-mystery performances in 2006, with 56 attendees. Now the two-weekend events tend to sell out; last year 350 people cycled through the house. (This is the first Dickens-themed detective story.)
See "Twisted" at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 19 and 26, and at 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 20 and 27. The mansion is at 200 W. Tulpehocken St. Tickets cost $16, with discounts for bulk orders. For more information, visit http://ebenezermaxwellmansion.org.
The folks who run the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion have embraced the general concept with "Twisted: A Dickensian Mystery." It's a sort of live game of Clue, in which the audience must figure out who murdered everyone's favorite orphan (and with what).
The suspects include a rogue's gallery of Dickens' creations, ranging from Fagin and Uriah Heep to the moldering Miss Havisham, complete with cobwebbed, mouse-bitten wedding cake. The action takes place in a Victorian house museum, amid a collection showing what life in the tree-lined "suburb" of Germantown was once like. The house boasts servants' quarters, a hand-crank coffee grinder, and an original stone outhouse. (Creepiest accoutrement: "hair art," which consists of a lock of curly tresses snipped from the head of a terminally ailing child and then framed.) After a tour of the murder scene, guests retire to the kitchen to nibble on refreshments and identify the killer.The 154-year-old mansion started the murder-mystery performances in 2006, with 56 attendees. Now the two-weekend events tend to sell out; last year 350 people cycled through the house. (This is the first Dickens-themed detective story.)
Have an event to include in Jawnts? E-mail jake.blumgart15@gmail.com.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20131020_Jawnts__Mr__Dickens_in_the_study_with_a_rope.html#GktXzZYTm2pLlvYF.99
No comments:
Post a Comment