The Halloween Files · Case dossier

The Anatomy Theatre

Merchiston Medical College, Edinburgh · 31 October 1888

“A building full of people entirely comfortable around the dead.”

The scene, before you arrive

A medical college in Edinburgh on Hallowe'en, gas lamps and a fog off the firth, the dissecting rooms cold and the daybooks kept in two hands. A death inside an institution where nobody is squeamish, everybody has access, and the paperwork is the only witness that cannot be talked round.

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.

Inside the file

What you get

The script

Fully scripted evening

Every act cued, every scene set, your lines where you need them. No prep, no printing, no experience required.

The evidence

Clues arrive in stages

Evidence and private dossiers drop to your guests' phones as the night unfolds, one act at a time.

The host

You play the victim

Set the table, welcome your guests, then haunt the evening while they work out who wanted you gone.

The table

6 to 12 players

A core cast carries the case, with flexible roles as your table grows. Latecomers can join as observers.

The stage

App-hosted

The case runs from any screen in the room. Your TV is the stage, the phones are the wings.

Original fiction

Merchiston Medical College is invented, though Edinburgh's anatomical history is real enough. The people and the death here are fiction.

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 Anatomy Theatre.

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.

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