Skip to main content
Murder: It’s so delectable, isn’t it? In Dead Stiff: A Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre Production, death is served with alcohol and lasagna in a ballroom filled with elegantly dressed guests. It’s all fun and games...until your host gets a knife in the stomach.
Written by Duane Hall, and directed by Meghan Daaboul and Hall, Dead Stiff may be a bit of a shock to anyone not well versed in the ways of dinner theater (I wasn’t until I attended). But if you go with the flow, you’ll have a good time, thanks to the production’s genial silliness and glamorous, Prohibition-era costumes.
The play begins at a party, where the deep-pocketed hostess (Daaboul) is suspiciously unbothered by the sudden death of her oafish husband. His bloody expiration sets off a chain of darkly funny events, ensnaring a plucky reporter, a feckless lackey, a conniving brooder, and a seductive singer.
Dead Stiff, which is being performed at the Gray Gables Estate in Milwaukie, is more party than play. The entertainingly random resolution of the mystery won’t satisfy anyone expecting the next Knives Out, but who cares? It’s a fun ride, with performers who clearly relish the goofy material (at one point, an actor even crawls under the table; these folks are nothing if not committed).
Part of the play’s appeal is the venue. Better known for hosting weddings than theater productions, the Gray Gables Estate lives up to its name. Despite being located just off Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard, it feels like a carefully cultivated alternate universe, complete with gardens, ponds, bridges and gazebos.
The production’s success is a testament to the vision (and delightfully flamboyant acting) of Daaboul, as well as Hall’s clever dialogue. A veteran of dinner theater mysteries on the Mount Hood Railroad, Hall is a Portland theater icon (as a child, I had the pleasure of taking one of his classes at Grace Art Camp). Dead Stiff proves that years in the business haven’t diminished his love of the mystery genre or his contagious sense of fun.
SEE IT: Dead Stiff plays at Gray Gables Estate, 3009 SE Chestnut St., 503-654-0470, graygables.com/murder-myster-dinner. 6:30 pm Friday-Saturday, through Dec. 3. $85.