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Murder on the Tube
In times like these; YouTube has been a hit when it comes to ‘premier’ entertainment, but, ‘Murder’ ? Well, yes as it happens, and a jolly good job was made of it too by Digswell Players, whose production of their interactive online murder mystery ‘Murder at the Manor’ made its’ debut.
The Digswell Players made a valiant effort to keep their members and followers entertained by performing a murder mystery over a period of three episodes on YouTube thanks to the ‘penned’ talent of Mary Portalska and music composer Ethan Baskerville.
This ‘home grown’ murder mystery was thought up and written by Mary as an experimental lockdown project.....but, how hard a task was it? Her answer was “harder than I thought, especially with specific plot points to squeeze in and limitations on length of dialogue”!
She says “I started writing this murder mystery as an experimental project, thinking how hard could it be? So, a big thank you to all the actors I roped in, who weren’t quite sure what they had signed up for, and then threw themselves into the project with enthusiasm, following my instructions from afar with only a little bit of nagging!".
All the actors filmed their parts individually in isolation, with their lines then edited together, which was a mammoth task in itself. I believe there were quite a few out-takes, sadly most of which can't be shown due to unsuitable language! A big thank you to Lucy Portalska for the hours spent in the edit suite and to Ethan Baskerville for the fabulous original music.
Everyone really enjoyed being involved, and throwing themselves into their characters, providing their own costume and props, and most importantly following producer Mary’s instructions, which were given out on Digswell Players Facebook page so members could offer theories as the story developed. Sixteen correct answers were included in the many guesses by viewers with one winner being chosen at random for the prize of a £20 Amazon voucher. This was an outstanding effort to keep both Digswell’s members and their supporters entertained during this difficult time. Congratulations Digswell.
'Murder at the Manor', written and produced by Mary Portalska, can be viewed on YouTube but the most import question is...Would she do it again? Well that’s a mystery only she can solve...
