A Prohibition-era gangster (Daniel Bertola) has met an untimely end, and six of the usual color-coded suspects are on the hook for his murder.
As an Agatha Christie-esque butler (Sam Lessen) in sparkly tuxedo tails explicates each potential means and motive, the victim’s theoretical demise is reenacted as a pugilistic pantomime, with deadly lead pipes and candlesticks swinging freely through the air mere feet from audience members’ faces. If you’ve ever wished the characters in your favorite mystery board game would leap to life and start bashing each other over the head, Get a Clue may be the “murder mystery whodunit stage combat extravaganza” made just for you.
Writer-director Jennifer Brophy has cobbled together her plot from a collection of familiar whodunit clichés, but don’t expect to solve this crime through your keen powers of observation. Not unlike last year’s Bill & Ted parody, this site-specific show (staged on the lawn outside Orlando Science Center) is less a piece of traditional theater than it is an opportunity for members of stage combat troupe LANCE Orlando to show off the skills they’ve honed performing at area Renaissance festivals.
Interestingly, the woman here are all fierce fighters — especially Bre Wells as Mrs. Lemon, who claws like a feral wolverine — but the men all seem to be moving through fight director AJ Harrett’s choreography at three-quarter speed. The circular dialogue and slender character development also seems like a step back from LANCE’s offering last year. But at least they have a somewhat more sheltered location, and with the show’s brief running time, you should be back inside before the bugs draw blood.
Get a Clue: A Murder Mystery Whodunit Stage Combat Extravaganza
Site specific: between the Orlando Science Center and Princeton Street
45 minutes; 13 & up
$8
Get tickets
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.