October Reading List: Mystery Plays

Ready to add a little mystery to your drama classroom? We’ve put together a list of plays full of secrets, twists, and unexpected turns that are sure to captivate your students.

Whether they’re uncovering hidden clues or piecing together the puzzle, these scripts will have your performers and the audience hooked. Ready to crack the case? Dive into our mystery play picks!

A school receives a mysterious script about a girl who died long ago. The director disappears. A new director arrives just in time and knows all about the story of the play. In fact, she seems to know it too well. And how did she get the dead girl’s ring?

Are the students of Herbert Hoover High too wrapped up in miscues, awful accents, and stolen boyfriends to notice? Revenge is coming. Who will pay the price when the real world and the play collide?

Each actor must play two vastly different roles in this spine-tingling comedy thriller. This easy to stage and intense theatrical experience will keep your audience on their edge of their seats. And the twist ending will make them question everything they've witnessed...

Learn more about Ashland Falls now!

Summer camp. The memories. The s’mores. The campfire. The ghost stories.

Dani’s out in the middle of the woods at night, alone, without a flashlight. She meets three girls from another camp, and the new friends tell ghost stories to pass the time.

After each of their stories comes to life onstage, only one story remains to be told – a story none of them saw coming.

An awesome combination of ghost stories, urban legends, teen issues, romance, absurd comedy, and film noir, all in a single play!

Learn more about The Bottom of the Lake now!

Tonight was going to be writer Alina Deveraux’s most important night, the unveiling of her memoirs: a non-fiction fictional retelling of Alina’s life moment by moment up until three hours ago when she finished it.

Until she ended up dead. Or not dead.

The comedic, melodramatic one-act mystery, She Wrote, Died, Then Wrote Some More, is an hilarious romp that features betrayals, broken hearts, a rather odd but beautiful love story, and many twists. The play features a cast of eccentric and unique characters, who may or may not at some point end up dying themselves. Or appearing murdered because of a rare fainting when frightened disorder…

Learn more about She Wrote, Died, Then Wrote Some More now!

The thumping of a heartbeat. The creak of a door. The howl of a bitter wind. The gong of a clock tower. The clang of alarm bells. The sound of beating wings getting closer and closer…

Specters, ghosts and ghouls come alive in this vivid theatrical adaptation of some of Edgar Allan Poe’s best-known works. Included are The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Masque of the Red Death.

Poe’s words rise from the page like corpses from the grave. Be careful. Do you hear that tap, tap, tapping?

Learn more about Shuddersome: Tales of Poe now!

Thunder and lightning tear apart the night sky while two young women explore the story of Frankenstein: Mary Shelley, who wrote the original novel, and Elsa, mysterious and determined to learn Mary’s secrets, including the most important of all… how to bring the dead to life.

Learn more about Frankenstein Among the Dead now!

Murdered twins. A lost heart. Evil in the painting. A girl and her mother frozen to death. These are a few of the Gothic ghosts whose stories are dying to be told in this creepy character-filled adaptation. Walk through the open window and join them by the dying fire light won’t you?

This modern adaptation of Victorian ghost stories is fabulous for a class project or late October production. Large cast staging options offered, and ghoulish make-up opportunities abound!

Learn more about Gothic Ghost Stories now!

Inspector Kapusta will leave no stone unturned to find the camp cook's missing kobassa. Okay, maybe he'll leave a couple of stones unturned. Okay, maybe he's a pretty bad detective but that just makes the play all the more hilarious.

A light-hearted romp with the funniest of all the red meats at its centre: FRIED KOBASSA!

Learn more about The Fried Kobassa now!

The star quarterback of Riverview High School has been charged with murder most fowl! Rooster, to be precise.

Plucky the mascot has been done in and all fingers point to the football player - even his own.

A farce of a trial ensues featuring an inept judge, an unprepared defence lawyer, and an Egg-Girl.

The audience plays the jury in this hilarious black comedy. Two possible endings!

Learn more about The Plucky Pie Murder now!

Icabod Crane is new to Sleepy Hollow and seems to fit right in. He's taking over the choir, courting the wealthy daughter, and sharing a ghost story or two. But not everyone is happy to see Icabod and not everyone thinks he loves ghost stories as much as he says. What happens when Icabod gets a ghoulish surprise?

This new adaptation of the Washington Irving story is excellent for large groups and suitably spooky for Halloween!

Learn more about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow now!