The Admiral's Dinner
Admiralty House, Portsmouth · October 1943
“Nine at table, one empty chair, and everybody still using their titles.”
A formal dinner in a requisitioned house, held partly to mark a promotion and mostly so that certain people can be seen agreeing with each other. The port goes round, the toast is drunk, and one of the party does not come back to the table. Rank sits over the whole evening like weather, and rank is very good at deciding which questions get asked.
That is as much as the file will give you. The rest comes out on the night, one piece of evidence at a time, and the room will be well into the evening before the shape of it shows.
What you get
Fully scripted evening
Every act cued, every scene set, your lines where you need them. No prep, no printing, no experience required.
Clues arrive in stages
Evidence and private dossiers drop to your guests' phones as the night unfolds, one act at a time.
You play the victim
Set the table, welcome your guests, then haunt the evening while they work out who wanted you gone.
6 to 12 players
A core cast carries the case, with flexible roles as your table grows. Latecomers can join as observers.
App-hosted
The case runs from any screen in the room. Your TV is the stage, the phones are the wings.
Wartime Portsmouth is real. Admiralty House as shown here, its guests and the death among them are invented.
Unlike our eight Case Files, which reopen real unsolved cases, this file is invented from end to end. There is no historical verdict to look up and nothing to spoil by reading around it. The solution is fair, the evidence is all in the room, and your table settles it.
Want a real one? The eight Case Files are genuine unsolved cases with real inquests.
Host The Admiral's Dinner.
Host it at your own table. Nothing to print, no script to learn, and you play the victim, so you finally get to attend your own party.