The History of Murder Mystery and its ties to the boardgame Clue

Abstract

This senior project involved working as both an actor and a dramaturg on a show based on the game of Clue called Frame(D). I portrayed two characters—the noble Colonel Amber with the protagonist's failure of a father, Mr. Peters—with the aim of meshing the Meisner technique with Chekhov. My work as a Theatre major was supported by my work as a History major, doing a deep dive into the history of the genre murder mysteries. Starting with the early days of Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue and including top-notch detectives like Sherlock Holmes, my research essay analyzes their impact on the board game of Clue as well as the future of the genre, from film noir all the way up to modern instances like Agatha Christie's latest filmed version of Murder on the Orient Express (2017). Even modern video games like Among Us are touched upon when featuring the genre's ever-expanding reach.