Park Square’s Riddle Puzzle Plot Delivers on Two-Thirds of Its Promise

Park Square Theatre

I don’t think I’m surprising anyone when I say it’s been a rough year for live theater. We don’t need to rehash all the reasons. I’ve tried and failed all summer to get into pixelated video recordings of old performances or Zoom chat open mics. It’s not ideal. There’s a reason why nobody’s fifty-minute recording of their hit Fringe show has ever gone viral, no matter how much it killed live. The internet is just not the correct venue for telling certain stories, and very few companies have a Hamilton-sized budget to make up the difference.

Kudos to Park Square Theatre for filling the void with something different. Their new four-part murder mystery show, Riddle Puzzle Plot, written by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Warren C. Bowles, aired its first episode on July 24. It’s a strange hybrid unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Each segment is performed live on Friday and Saturday nights for an audience on Zoom, with a composite recording posted on Sundays. Those who tune in for the live performance are given a riddle some time during the episode. Whoever solves it first gets to participate in the next week’s episode.

The story involves a Zoom chat among seven actors whose annual mystery theater production has been cancelled thanks to the pandemic. Each of these actors is wearing the costume of a traditional detective story archetype. There’s the Host (E.J. Subkoviak), the Gimlet-Eyed Cynic (Shanan Custer), the Femme Fatale (Sun Mee Chomet), the Perfect Suspect (Pearce Bunting), the Hard-Boiled Dame with a Heart of Gold (Aimee K. Bryant), the Gigolo (Rodolfo Nieto), and the Ingenue (Alessandra Bongiardina). Each actor is also drinking a different cocktail and staying in a different cabin named after a famous suspense or mystery writer. If this all sounds like the setup for some very complicated logic puzzle, well, there’s the second part of the title.

Top left to bottom right: Sun Mee Chomet, Shanan Custer, Aimee K. Bryant, E.J. Subkoviak, Alessandra Bongiardina, Rodolfo Nieto, Pearce Bunting. Park Square Theatre

But the show trips up on that third idea: plot. Each of the characters has a backstory and a defining personality trait, mostly fitting with their archetype. The Host and Gimlet-Eyed Cynic were married until a year ago. The Perfect Suspect wrote the play the company was supposed to perform this year, but was required to do so under a pseudonym and was thus deprived of both his show and the acclaim. The Hard-Boiled Dame with a Heart of Gold is just like every other overworked stage manager, taking care of everything and getting very little recognition. It’s a standard litany of grudges and possible motives that populate any murder mystery, but it never comes alive as the concerns of flesh-and-blood human beings.

Part of that might be the nature of the setup. The Host has invited everyone to this chat, requested they be in costume, and calculated all the accouterments that will form the basis of the overarching mystery, but we spend so much time setting up pieces and determining how each character fits that their actual personalities and relationships never get much time to shine. If you love taking notes and compiling clues, this will be a rewarding forty-five minutes. If you’re looking for interpersonal drama and a propulsive narrative to move things ahead, you’ll be pretty disappointed.

And maybe that’s okay. Under normal circumstances I would have a number of complaints about Riddle Puzzle Plot, but it was created precisely because these are not normal circumstances. Perhaps in a world without any live, in-person theater, putting the clues together and solving a mystery with local actors is reward enough in itself. At the end of each performance, audience members get the chance to submit questions which the actors answer in-character. This might be the first time in history that the post-show discussion is the best part, since it takes the focus off the tenuous relationships between thinly-drawn archetypes and redirects it toward the pure joy of rifling through clues and solving mysteries together. The actors seem to have more fun here, freed from the demands of a wordy, reference-laden script and allowed to fully embody their larger-than-life roles.

Sun Mee Chomet as the Femme Fatale. Park Square Theatre

It should also be noted that the production value here is much higher than similar digital performances I’ve seen. I caught the recording released on Sunday and didn’t see the live performances, but the editing was clean and the use of Zoom as a format (from planned dropped feeds and audio glitches becoming part of the story to jokes about characters not realizing their mics are muted) was flawless. They do it so well that you really need to watch other performances (or spend some time chatting with your family and coworkers) to learn all the ways it could go wrong. The green screen backgrounds also work. They could look cheesy, but end up providing a nice bit of texture to the world. The music (composed by Chan Poling) and opening credits also help establish atmosphere and authenticity. These details might seem small, but when you’re watching on your laptop in your living room, anything that helps with immersion is a gift.

None of these observations negate the others. It’s a matter of preference. If you’re looking for a brain teaser or want to get lost in solving a mystery, this show is a lot of fun. If you’re a more traditional viewer looking for emotional truth and a compelling narrative, you should probably look elsewhere. Riddle Puzzle Plot may not be a great piece of theater, but as people reimagine what theater can be in the age of coronavirus, it takes bold steps in a unique direction, and I hope other companies follow their example.

Live performances of Riddle Puzzle Plot will air Friday and Saturday nights through August 14. Recordings of performances will be available every Sunday. Tickets and links to all four performances can be purchased at Park Square’s website.