Description

This is a Long Form handle: at the start of the show, provide some Backstory to the audience. Some character has been murdered. The audience gets to choose which player is the victim.

The cops interview her best friend, suspecting him to be the killer. The audience gets to pick the player who will play the best friend.

Audience also provides the names for both characters, and indicates how long the 2 have been best friends.

The performance itself is a game of ping-pong between interrogation of the friend by the cops, and flashbacks.

Performance starts with the interrogation. A question might be "How long have you been friends, and how did you meet?" The scene then jumps to the moment the characters met.

When the scene is over, we switch back to the interview. We may now be at a different moment in time - the idea is that we see bits and pieces of the interrogation, at various points in time. The friend can indicate time as in "of course I am happy to help" or "OMG how did she die?" (indicating time right after the murder). Or say "this is the tenth time you bring me in", or "I've been here for 3 days now. Am I under arrest?" - indicating a later time. There is no need to go chronologically in the interviews.

Every interview question leads to a scene, based on the information provided in the answer to he question. The scenes need not proceed chronologically - feel free to jump around in time.

Performance ends when the cops ask the question "Did you do it?". Before the friend can answer, lights go out. We will never know; we never see the actual murder either.

Notes

• The goal is not to find out whether the friend did it or not; the goal is neither to incriminate (or not) the friend. The actual murder is really irrelevant; it's just a handle. The real goal is to see interesting scenes about the characters, through time.
• If possible, set up an interrogation space on scene, where the friend can sit in a brightly lit spot. During the scenes the spot light is out.
• Both victim and friend need not be in every scene. The friend can tell hearsay information about the victim, and then we might see a scene where the friend does not participate. Supporting players can play a variety of other characters, and need not play the same character in every scene. But victim and friend are always played by the same characters.
• The cops should feel free to put pressure on the friend (light torture is permitted). Feel free to set up a good cop/bad cop routine. All cop cliches can be used.

Origin

Format is attributed to Jeron Dewulf.