MANITOWANING—Murder has been committed at the Knox United Church—or will be during a pair of fundraising murder mystery dinners to be held 6 pm Friday, August 12 and and Saturday, August 13. The folks at the Knox United Church are seeking your help to solve the mysteries.
Yes, that’s mysteries, folks, because in order to keep the secret of whodunit there are two endings. No spoilers for the Saturday folks will be coming from the Friday diners.
Retired Collingwood school teacher turned playwright Liz Greer-O’Leary has been penning the custom murder mystery dinner theatre scripts for five years, packing would be sleuths (and suspects) into Manitowaning’s Knox United Church for the wildly popular mystery dinner theatre performances.
“We had a cottage up here for years,” noted Ms. Greer-O’Leary. “We became quite involved in Knox United Church.” Like many small rural churches, the Knox UC congregation was always searching for fundraising ideas, she said. “One day I had this idea.” From that euphony was born the dinner mystery theatre.
At this year’s dinner, diners are given a name with their ticket, such as Brook Trout, and are divided up into two camps, fishers and hunters. It seems the Manitowaning groom was a fisher, but his Gore Bay bride-to-be is a hunter. The dining hall is decorated with a split personality, one half fishing camp, one half hunting camp.
In an added twist, it seems the fisher was catfished, as the pair met online a mere two weeks before the wedding date, and the groom, one Marlin Brandon, has never met the bride in person—he has only seen a photograph that is the spitting image of Farah Fawcett.
The Expositor has a role in this year’s play—as in the opening scene, newsman Rick McCutcheon receives a phone call from ace reporter Pat Hall informing him that a murder has been committed at the United Church dinner and that she has no details. Undaunted by the lack of details or facts, the intrepid reporter sets about writing the story to meet that week’s deadline.
Enough spoilers, to learn more book your tickets today—and check your tickets carefully, and dress accordingly, because this year there are two prizes to be won, one for the best costumed fisher and the other for the best costumed hunter.
Dinner will be catered by the Roadkill Café and will feature such local delicacies as hot breast of Springhill sand crane.
Tickets are $25 may be secured by contacting Anne at 705-859-3698.
