BUCKHANNON — Start searching for those old faded high-waisted jeans and that totally tubular T-shirt because the spirit of the ‘90s is coming to the Buckhannon Opera House this weekend.
Relive the days of grunge, Lisa Frank and the scare of Y2K as The Vintage Theatre Company presents “A Totally Gnarly 90s Wedding Murder Mystery.com” dinner theater event at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13.
The interactive dinner theater aims to have guests on the edge of their seats as the investigation explores who murdered who. And, like, there will totally be “a healthy dose of betrayal, adultery and enough ’90s nostalgia to choke a Tamagotchi.”
This upcoming event is just one of the murder mysteries from The Vintage Company Theatre’s collection with the first one set in the ‘20s followed by a mystery centered in the ‘80s.
“As we were preparing for the next one, we realized most of us grew up in the ‘90s, and we kept getting requests for the murder to happen at a wedding, so our playwright set it at the [wedding] rehearsal dinner,” said Sarah Young, actor and stage manager for murder mysteries. Young is also the wife of Jason A. Young, owner of the theater company.
Local playwright, actor and improv comedian, Steve McElroy, of Fairmont writes all The Vintage Company Theatre’s murder mysteries.
Aside from a murder, Young said attendees can expect good food, many motives, suspicious alibies and “lots of jokes and references to the decade.”
“Our playwright also likes to enhance the dialogue by using lyrics from well-known ‘90s songs and lines from movies of that time,” she said. “We also have an interactive portion where they get a chance to interview all the suspects.”
With the setting a rehearsal dinner in the 90s, Young said folks can come dressed in ‘90s fashion if they wish.
“They are also welcome to come as they are,” she added.
This will not be the first time the theater company will be performing in the renovated Buckhannon Opera House. In October 2018, VTC’s touring Shakespeare troupe The Rustic Mechanicals performed “Hamlet.” And, in April of this year, the improv troupe, The Fearless Fools, hosted the fifth annual West Virginia Comedy Festival in the space.
“The Opera House is such a beautiful space and perfect for our style of performances. We like our audiences to feel as though they are part of the world of the play,” said Young. “Whether it is improv comedy, Shakespeare, or our murder mysteries, audiences of Vintage Theatre Company are not just observers, they are our scene partners.”
For the Friday the 13th event, tickets are $30 each for dinner (a buffet dinner from C.J. Maggie’s) and a show. To order tickets or for more information, guests may email vintagetheatreco@gmail.com or call 304-203-3945.
“I would just like to emphasize the fun and lightheartedness of our murder mysteries. While we take the work we do seriously and the enjoyment of our guests seriously, the plays themselves are certainly not,” Young noted.