Many people wore Venetian costume at the murder mystery evening © Culture24 / Phillipa Davies

Culture24 East Midlands writer Phillipa Davies puts herself in the line of fire - at a museum murder mystery evening...

Twenty-five competition winners were transformed into super sleuths to work out whodunit at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday May 17 2008.

‘Death in Venice’ was a night at the museum with an innovative twist for Museums and Galleries Month 2008.

Puzzled Poirots and mischievous Miss Marples made their way around the museum amid its fine collection of Venetian art, in a search for clues and to note down vital information.

“Having a murder mystery night in the museum was a really good idea. We didn’t want to do ‘first come first served’ as it’s unfair, so we decided to run a competition asking questions like who is Sherlock Holmes’ partner?” said Debra Cox, Senior Museum Education Officer.

The evening began at 7.30pm and many arrived dressed to impress as they embraced their role.

“We’ve been to murder mystery nights before in hotels where you sit around a table and they act it out for you. This was more interactive, I would definitely recommend it to friends,” said Martin Kennedy from Northampton.

Everyone got involved with the intrigue. © Culture24 / Phillipa Davies

The evening progressed as individual performances of acting, singing and dancing took place nestled amongst the fine Venetian displays. But it was a disguise for murder; a young woman had been ‘a victim of mistaken identity’ and was poisoned.

“We wanted to use the museum as a social space to get people talking to each other and having a good time,” said Debra Cox from the museum.

A buffet was provided to the sleuths as they mulled over the facts and were presented with details of a previous murder. Were they connected? What was the motive? And most importantly - who did it? These were the questions on everyone’s lips.

Four performers quickly became suspects in the game and had a lot of explaining to do as they faced a barrage of questions from the investigative teams.

The winning team that unmasked the villain won prizes. © Culture24 / Phillipa Davies

“We employed the expertise of Looking Glass Theatre to help us. Part of their brief was to prepare a script for us in case we were to run it again ourselves,” said Debra Cox.

As the evening drew to a close, two bottles of wine were awarded to the winning team for correctly identifying who did it and why. The participants headed for home with nothing but praise for the actors and the museum staff.

“It was great. I think taking it out and around the museum is unique, which makes it more interesting and you feel more involved,” said visitor Diane Kennedy.

Northampton Museum and Art Gallery has one of the finest Venetian art collections in the UK, so the murder mystery evening was a great place to celebrate the magic of the watery Italian city. Northampton is hosting a three-month festival, ‘Venezia!', with many more Venetian themed events - see the website www.northampton.gov.uk/venezia for more details.

Phillipa Davies is one of our three Renaissance East Midlands arts writers, reporting on MGM 2008 events all over the region for the whole month of May. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.