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funny whodunit

HE’S BEHIND YOU! A FUNNY WHODUNIT AND A PANTO ROLLED INTO ONE

You think it’s easy, do you? Putting on a show? For Beau Boots it would, initially, seem stress-free; he’s a professional for one, he’s directing Cinderella for goodness sake, it’s a pantomime version (the most ‘noble’ type of theatre performance) so surely, the theatre gods must be on his side and the rehearsals and the show itself will be taking place in a church hall – so God himself is most certainly on his side too in this funny whodunit.

Beau refuses to let the mistakes of the previous year’s production (we do not speak of them) taint this one…but in He’s Behind You, the ghosts of Christmas past (more real than you would think) threaten Beau’s work once more. A foul crime is committed in this four act dramedy during the show’s debut and Beau Boots production of Cinderella is jeopardized and all eyes are on the pool of potential perpetrators from the production, as guesses turn to prayer, quite literally, in fact.

It is said that the name Cinderella means little ashes. In this context: the little ashes of a sadly ‘pantomomical’ disaster.

He’s behind you has been staged by the Montgomery Youth Theatre in 2015.

FURTHER PRODUCTION HISTORY

St. Patrick’s picnic group, United Kingdom – 2019

Author: Penny Jones

Genre: Funny whodunit

Type: Full length one act play with four scenes. It can easily be split into a two act play at the director’s discretion.

Length: 90-110 minutes

Cast: Main characters: 6M, 3F

Ages of the actors: Young adult to elderly

Suitable for: All ages, aimed at adults.

Set: The play is set in a scruffy church hall where some tables are untidily pushed together with several chairs around, a counter with tea urn and cups, and lots of signs prohibiting everything.

Level of difficulty: 7/10 – characterization – many of the characters are quite colorful.

Read a Sample of the Script

Cost is $6.50 for this previously staged production

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about He’s Behind You

Copyright © Penny Jones and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other comedy whodunits for you to enjoy:

Clown Car – a comedy whodunit. With clowns.
Killers with benefits – funny crime script
Merriweather’s murderous weekend – a British whodunit that shouldn’t have been

Comedies, Crime, Plays in 2 acts

Killers with Benefits – funny crime script (or who is about to do it)

February 16, 2017 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

funny crime script

KILLERS WITH BENEFITS – FUNNY CRIME SCRIPT (OR – WHO IS ABOUT TO DO IT)

It’s a dark and stormy night, and the young, attractive, married Mandy is all alone at home (except for her security guard and live in maid, of course) sipping a long island iced tea when the announcement comes over the radio. A dangerous convict has escaped and is at large in the area. A moment later, the lights go out and somebody unknown takes her hostage. He’s armed, soaking wet and … well not quite as dangerous looking as you’d expect.

Featuring everything you’d expect from a funny crime script. A body in the bathtub! An escaped convict! A philandering husband! A cheating wife and her lover! A nefarious plot by more than one party to get rid of the other and by the end of the play, utter chaos.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Emerge Productions, Tasmania, Australia – 2022
Diva LasVegas, AZ, USA – 2023
AUT Performing Arts, Auckland, New Zealand – 2023

Read about playwright Tony Broadwick. Other plays by Tony – Death’s no laughing matter.

Author: Tony Broadwick

Genre: Comedy, funny crime script

Type: Short two-act play

Length: Sixty minutes

Cast: Eleven: 4F, 7M

Ages of the actors: Adult

Suitable for: To view – all ages. To perform – adult but could be done by older teens

Set: Living room of an upper-middle class family. Furniture reminds one of IKEA –functional, minimalist, and characterless. Two watercolor paintings on the wall are an ostentatious attempt at emulating “The Water Lilies” – A failed attempt at best. Stage right, an over-sized, frosted glass door, is the main entrance door to the house. Three other doors upstage open into the kitchen, the master bedroom, and a guests’ bathroom. Two big windows, one close to the entry door reveals a fichus hedge in the distance, and the second window between two doors shows a street lamppost and a part of the hedge. Floor-length curtains hang on each side of the windows.

Level of difficulty: 7/10 – chaos at the end of the script

Read a Sample of the Script

Cost is $8.00 for this digital play script. Just Click Shakespeare!

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Killers with benefits

Copyright © February 2017 Tony Broadwick and Off the Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other crime scripts:

All in the past – period whodunit play
The Mysterious death of Christine Wilde
Why shoot your husband – ten minute drama scripts

Comedies, Crime, Plays in three acts

Murder and other fun things – off the wall whodunit play script

February 21, 2016 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

funny whodunit play script

MURDER AND OTHER FUN THINGS – OFF THE WALL WHODUNIT PLAY SCRIPT

Murder is the mischief in this grand tale, when a burglar wanders into the Von Cash household but does not make it out alive (lucky for him if you ask me). The butler, the chef, the gardener, the maid,
the clairvoyant and even the madam of the house, Ms. Chattel Von Cash herself (an outrage if you ask her, darling), are all suspects when Detective Schenectady takes it upon himself (poor
unsuspecting sod) to investigate the case.

Old money meets new money madness as the detective discovers this will not be a routine examination of the events of this one day. From the body popping up in different locations within the house itself, to the chef insisting upon using it as his next main ingredient, Schenectady has to defy the amazing obstacles set before him by the extreme
personalities who run the Von Cash mansion. When the culprit is exposed, all hell not so muchbreaks loose, as explodes into something Von Cash would dread to see on her carpet, darling.

Truth will out! But don’t expect to love the consequences, darling.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Badhuis Theater, Almere, Netherlands – 2023

Author: Geoffrey Stoddard

Genre: Off The Wall Whodunit play script, comedy

Type: Three act play

Cast: 4M 3F

Ages of the actors: Adult

Suitable for: All ages

Length: 3 hours

Set: Changes with the acts.

Act one: A living room. Center stage sits a couch with a coffee table before it. Right center is a small round table with two chairs on either side of it. Up right is a tall bar.

Act two: Operating Room. A table sits in the middle of the room horizontally with a body upon it, face up, the head on the right end.

Act three: Living room

Level of difficulty: 7/10 – the length of the play.

Read a Sample of the Script

A shorter script is available on request.

Cost is $6.50 for this new digital script. Just Click Shakespeare!

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Murder and other fun things

Copyright February 2016 Geoffrey Stoddard and Off The Wall Play Publishers

Like this play? Other whodunits that we stock:

Parlor city noir – classic gritty whodunit
All in the past – murder mystery play set in 1930’s Shanghai
Why shoot your husband? A woman suspected of murder has to prove she hasn’t done it, but there is a twist…

Comedies, Crime, Plays in three acts

Guilty Party – Whodunit Three Act Farce

May 27, 2014 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

GUILTY PARTY – WHODUNIT THREE ACT FARCE

You are cordially invited to a murder at Dr. Phil Fein’s early retirement party. There will be juicy gossip, backbiting insults, personal threats and a corpse.

In this comedic 3-act farce, five guests hide deadly secrets. One of them hides a murder weapon. Who is guilty? Could it be Joe, the social climbing public relations director or Sal Monella, director of food services? There’s Royalty too and she’s acting suspiciously. How about the nurse’s aid, who’s just a little too stupid? Or the cardiac surgeon who isn’t as clever as she thinks she is? A funny whodunit three act farce script for five people.

Read about playwright Scott Doss.

Production History

Mount Cotton Drama Group, Queensland, Australia – 2016
St Columba College, Southern Australia, Australia – 2019
Beadle County Players – SD, USA – 2020
Department of Foreign languages and literature in National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan – 2020
El Reno Community Theatre, OK, USA – 2021
Coventry High School, CT, USA – 2022

Author: Scott Doss

Genre: Comedy, Murder Mystery

Type: Three-act farce

Number of Actors: 1M, 4F

Ages of the actors: All adult

Length: 1-1½ hours with 2 intermissions

Suitable for: All ages

Set: The hospitality room of a medical emergency center.

Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – a fast-paced mystery farce that revolves around a murder. (For comic effect, male actors may portray all the characters.)

Read a Sample of the Script

Cost is $11.00 for this best selling digital script. Just click Shakespeare above!

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Cost is $15.00 for the printed script. Reduced costs for multiple purchases. Please click Shakespare right above!

Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Guilty Party

License Guilty Party for production

Like this play? Have a look at some of our other whodunits

Murder and a Show – a whodunit comedy
Parlor City Noir – film noir script
Clown Car – a whodunit play. With clowns

Comedies, Crime, Plays in 2 acts

Clown Car – a Whodunit play script in two acts

June 9, 2013 Demmer Dewan Leave a comment

whodunit comedy script — Suffer Fools Gladly, Stetson University, 2009, Photos courtesy of Ken McCoy, Ph.D.

comedy about clowns — Suffer Fools Gladly, Stetson University, 2009, Photos courtesy of Ken McCoy, Ph.D.

CLOWN CAR – A Whodunit play script in two acts

In this whodunit play script, dozens of circus clowns pile out of a car. One doesn’t. Thus begins the new murder mystery comedy by Mark Aloysius Kenneally. Artie and Nick are two detectives who thought they had seen it all. But they find out that when you’re interrogating suspects like Chuckles, Pozo, and Backwards Bobo… clowns can turn out to not only make you laugh, but also… drive you crazy. Who killed Bubbles? And why? Join Artie, Nick and Doctor Amy Harris-Talmun, the police psychiatrist, as they try desperately to solve the most bizarre, challenging, surprising and humorous murder mystery they’ve ever investigated.

CLOWN CAR, under the previous title, SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY, received its first staged reading at The Players Theatre in in Sarasota, FL. July, 2007. Then had a staged reading at Ten Grand and a Burger in New York City, September, 2007. It had a staged reading at the DeLand Theatre Festival, DeLand, FL in January, 2008 and another Staged Reading in Midland, TX in August, 2009 (It was a finalist in the 2009 McClaren International Comedy Playwriting Contest). SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY received its World Premiere Production at Stetson University, DeLand, FL in September, 2009.

Further Production History:

Liberty Lake Community Theatre – WA, USA – 2016
Okaw Valley High School, IL, USA – 2017
Oakbrook Preparatory school – SC, USA – 2018
Starlighters II Theater, IA, USA – 2018
Little River School, KS, USA – 2019
Lake Air Montessori, TX, USA – 2021
Circle Theatre of Barnwell, SC, 2022
Pennwest Edinboro University, Alpha Psi Omega Gamma Kappa, PA, USA – 2023

Author: Mark Aloysius Kenneally

Genre: Crime,Whodunit, Comedy

Type: Two act play

Number of Actors: 4M, 5F.
The roles of the clowns have been written with the intention that they all be played by one Actor and one Actress with minimal costume and wig changes to heighten the confusion and frustration as it builds throughout the play. However, it is recognized that individual producers, such as school and community theatre groups may wish to expand the cast size by having these roles be played by different actors and actresses, or have some of the roles played by actresses rather than actors or vice versa. This decision is entirely permitted by the author and is left up to the individual producers.

Ages of actors: One policeman in his thirties, and one male and female character each in their thirties. The clowns can be of any age.

Set: Various different rooms at a police station in any “small town U.S.A.” and at the big top circus. The sets should be suggested with as simple set pieces as possible. Many of the locales can simply be suggested with lighting changes and/or with as little as a table and a few chairs as set pieces.
Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – especially if the same actor is playing multiple roles

The author will allow workshopping of the script. Read more about playwright Mark aloysius Kenneally.