Blyth Festival 2024: Birgitte Solem drew on murder mystery theatre experience to write 'Resort to Murder'

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

While Birgitte Solem hasn’t been part of the Blyth Festival company since 2017’s The Pigeon King, she has a long and storied history with the Festival, which has, in part, led to the creation of this season’s Resort to Murder.

 

Having said that, Solem’s new play represents the perfect synthesis of her work at the Blyth Festival and as part of a Toronto-based murder mystery theatre company, which served as another inspiration for the show.

 

Resort to Murder’s story goes that Brett and Viv inherit an old family mansion on the shores of Lake Huron and wrestle over whether to turn it into a spa-like retreat or a murder mystery-themed escape room. The couple and their staff agree to a trial run for the escape room, there is a storm, the lights go out, the doors lock and the consequences of the night grow more serious by the hour.

 

Solem worked for the murder mystery theatre for 20 years and she loved the work. She loved the instant feedback she and her fellow actors would receive from the audience and the improvisational nature of the performances, but, as the years went on, she said she really felt drawn to the writing aspect of it; crafting the story and engaging the audiences with all of the twists and turns. (On a side note, she said that’s what really drew her to work on The Pigeon King - collectively creating the story and writing it with her fellow artists was a thrilling experience.)

 

So, as her work continued with the theatre, she found herself getting more drawn into the writing side of things. Furthermore, as a consumer of art, Solem said she had always been drawn to murder mysteries and true crime in all its forms, whether it be the landmark film noir of the 1940s and 1950s, the detective dramas of the 1980s and 1990s or today’s boom in true crime series and podcasts.

 

For her, Peter Falk’s Columbo was formative as well. While she was drawn to these mysterious, often horrific stories, Solem said she appreciated many of the old-fashioned, for lack of a better term, aspects of them. She was drawn to stories with a heart and good triumphing over evil.

 

So, after years of writing as a member of the aforementioned theatre, Solem approached Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt for advice about writing her first, full-length play - the concept that would become Resort to Murder. This was before the pair would work together on The Pigeon King, but Solem had a firm foundation with the Festival through her husband, Raoul Bhaneja, who had acted on the Memorial Hall stage for many years.

 

Soon, she found herself working with Severn Thompson, who served as a dramaturge for the project, and the wheels really began turning.

 

Garratt has said that having Resort to Murder as part of the Blyth Festival’s 50th anniversary season is part of a great lineage - a nod to Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, which was part of the Festival’s very first season.

 

In that vein, Solem said there is a nostalgic element to her show that she hopes will resonate with people. 

 

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she remembered so many people returning to art they were familiar with and that made them happy, whether it be rewatching old movies or revisiting beloved television shows. For her, she feels there is a similar murder mystery nostalgia to Resort to Murder that she hopes audiences will feel as well.

 

Resort to Murder begins with preview performances on July 24-25 before opening on July 26. The run closes on Saturday, Aug. 31.