Area winery asks patrons ‘whodunit?’

A “murder” has gone down at Pheasant Hollow Winery. And the owners are leaving it up to patrons to figure out who’s responsible.

“Calling it a murder mystery is kind of a misnomer because it’s really a murder comedy,” Bruce Morgenstern, Pheasant Hollow co-owner, said.

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The winery is in its 14th year of offering monthly “murder comedies,” and the events are booked solid every month, Morgenstern said.

“This (month’s) is the ‘Murder at Duck Dynasty’ and it’s been booked for about two months,” Morgenstern said.

Having held as many as 27 dinner events in a year, Pheasant Hollow has a fairly standard order of events for the night’s proceedings. Included in the $40 ticket is the first glass of wine, the dinner and the mystery.

“I think the madness of the tasting starts it all up, sets the tone for the whole evening,” Morenstern said. “Everybody gets excited and very talkative and at around 5:30 the troupe will be here and they come out and start mingling with everyone and what they are doing is looking for people to play parts.”

Morgenstern said the troupe never has an issue trying to find people to participate.

“There’s always somebody wanting to play and the troupe is funny, but it’s the audience participation that makes it unique,” he said.

Many people visit the winery in groups and well over half of the time there will be first-time attendees.

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“We went to a couple different murder mysteries, this is one of our favorite places,” Scott Richard, of Christopher, said on behalf of himself and his wife. “We’ve come over here at least a couple times a year,”

Richard said the themes switch up each time but the order of the evening remains consistent.

“As the night unfolds you’re going to see different characters coming out dressed as the Duck Dynasty folks,” he said. “They will then go out to the audience and they will have role-players. They will introduce everybody, then the different actors, then we’ll have the murder and then the mystery of who did it and try to figure out. So they’re going to give several leads on how to figure it out.”

The shows are usually put on by the traveling troupe Upstage Productions. The troupe’s creative director Kevin O’Brien said his group has been performing murder mysteries for about 20 years.

“We are based in St. Louis and we go all over the country, mostly the Midwest, performing in wineries and also some dinner trains and doing these murder mysteries,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said his journey in show business has taken him through various jobs and locations.

“I’ve always wanted to make a living in show business and somehow I’ve managed to all my life, so I’ve done a bunch of strange stuff,” he said. “Magic, to standup comedy, to teaching theatre, to working on a riverboat and doing shows, and then (I) stumbled into this and all these years making a living going to wineries.”

The Murder Mystery is certainly a sight to behold. The actors are clever and their script serves the evening humorously, while the guests’ acting compliments the scripted performance.

“Along with the play and the acting, we have good food and a lot of good wine,” Richard said. “It’s a good time.”

Morgenstern said people should consider pre-registering if they want to attend a show. The next murder mystery is “The Grapes of Death” on Nov. 9.

“I always suggest that everyone start shopping a month out, at least for your tickets, because they’ll be gone,” Morgenstern said.