WHAT?
Murder. A knife in the back. Cold, silent, and deadly.
Dinner theater is a happening event on a Saturday night in Ajijic. Ryan and I attended a murder mystery dinner show called Murder at La Mision and enjoyed two complementary margaritas, a three-course meal, and a lot of laughs.
Detective Vredenburg
Evidence of dinner
WHY?
That is the question, isn’t it. Margarita wasn’t exactly popular. She never should have returned to Mexico.
The cast was a group of seven local participants deliberating over the murder of their rather unsavory acquaintance, Margarita Bonita. One-by-one, they each pointed their nervous fingers at someone else sitting at the table. “I hold in my hand an entry torn from Margarita’s diary showing that she had been recently threatened by Don Juan Diablo and was afraid for her life,” said ex-fiance Warren Peace. “Yet Desert Flower was standing right behind Margarita before she was stabbed,” Kay Pasa commented. “Well she was stabbed with the knife belonging to Warren Peace,” Agent Orange countered.
The Suspects
Detective Vredenburg
WHERE?
La Mision, where Ryan and I found ourselves studying the seven suspects seated before us, was the very place where a woman lost her life. One of them was the killer we knew, but which one?
Anyone curious as to how the cast members had come by their suspicious contributions of evidence need only ask. We were assured that the cast members would answer any questions we had and were assured that they were not allowed to lie. In fact, audience participation was encouraged and we shot question after question. The correct group to solve the crime by the end of the night was promised a fabulous prize and we all wanted it. “Let me see that diary entry!” one audience member demanded. “Is Agent Orange free for dinner tomorrow night?” another inquired boldly. He may have been on to something, but it was unlikely to win him the prize…
The scene of the crime
The stage
WHEN?
Saturday night, that same evening, only hours before we had arrived to take our meal. Hopefully the killer would be content with one victim before the night was through…
In fact, the audience was a bit more rowdy than the previous night’s had been. “You guys ask too many damn questions!” Senorita Bonita informed my table at intermission. She was playing the bitter sister of the victim and seemed determined to stay in character, letting us know that the previous night’s audience hadn’t been nearly as meddlesome.
Evidence of dessert
Our competitive edge
WHO?
The possibilities are endless…
Apparently every one of the cast members had it out for the victim–a scheming and ambitious woman recently returned to Mexico–but only one of them got to kill her. The verdict could have gone any way, and at the end of the show we discovered that it really could have! A different killer had been identified the previous night with the very same evidence. Although my table did not guess the correct killer, we sure had a great time trying!
Rusty Pick and Agent Orange
Don Juan Diablo and Desert Flower
What fun!