Killer in the Conservatory, an Interactive Murder Mystery, is Genius on every level (5 stars PLUS)
Killer in the Conservatory, an Interactive Murder Mystery, is Genius on every level (5 stars PLUS)
Events INSIDER Magazine was founded 19 years ago to discover secret gems in the arts and travel, and this is a great one, especially given our focus on interactive entertainment such as Renaissance Fairs and Halloween haunted houses. Killer in the Conservatory at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill is the best murder mystery event that we’ve ever been to. Trust us: you do not want to miss their next event.
It’s a chance to play out a murder mystery in real life. It’s a fancy party that takes place all across a beautiful garden, except that most of the attendees (you and other visitors) are detectives and a few (the actors) are murder suspects. You interview the suspects, search for clues and ultimately make your best guess as to whodunnit!
The murder mystery is put on by Escapism Productions, a New England-based immersive theatre company that produces a wide range of shows. Among their other offerings include Shakespeare, horror and historical events. https://www.escapismproductions.com/
Let’s start with the venue. Killer in the Conservatory is hosted by New England Botanic Garden https://nebg.org/ near Worcester, Massachusetts. The gardens are a marvel, with two giant subtropical conservatory spaces included in admission that boast hundreds of impressive plants and trees, including date palms, cycads, citrus trees, orchids, and giant vines. It’s a perfect and mysterious setting for the nighttime immersive event, which is set in the 1800s. Including the outdoor grounds, which were not accessible in this wintertime experience, NEBG is one of New England’s most beautiful destinations, a popular wedding spot with a full calendar of creative events, year-round. The Garden is always looking for interactive ways to engage the public and connect with new audiences, and Killer in the Conservatory, which NEBG first organized in 2023, does this. 
The event itself begins in the Garden’s café, which during the event offers a snack bar serving baked goods, desserts and a few sandwiches, and a bar for beer, wine and cocktails. You are given a drink ticket with admission. Try the signature drink for the event, “Murder in the Garden”, which has a taste comparable to sweet sangria. It’s got a kick, but is not overpowering. Your ticket also includes a free “popcorn bar” where you can mix popcorn with candy, sprinkles, and even cookies. That’s a nice snack if you need it!
Then the actors play a scene that explains the setting and the murder itself. You are presented with a clipboard and some introductory notes. Dr. Vivian Verdant, a renowned herbologist created an elixir of life. She died of what was first thought of as natural causes only later to be revealed she was murdered. The prime suspects are 5 of her closest associates and friends. It’s up to you to solve the mystery!
Your clipboard contains character sheets that allow you to track each character’s motive, alibi, and where they were in the timeline on the night of the murder. This is similar to the board game Clue, but more complicated. You really must take copious notes and pay attention if you want to catch the devious killer!
Then the event proceeds like a night of speed dating, where you go from table to table meeting a new person, except in this case, you and your group of a dozen people go from room to room at New England Botanic Garden, including the two conservatories. In each room you and your group of detectives (the other attendees) face a murder suspect (an actor) and can ask questions. There are props you can examine as well, giving a tactile element that is a hallmark of immersive experiences. After several minutes, again like speed dating, a bell rings and you move to the next room, to meet the next possible murderer.
In such a way you eventually get to meet and interrogate all of the suspects. Then finally you end up in the café again where you make your best guess as to who the murderer is, and the actors play out the ending, with a big reveal!
Overall, Killer in the Conservatory was a revelation of next generation immersive theater. It has the perfect venue, a mystery perfectly balanced to challenge you but still allow most attendees to guess the correct killer, and actors who could give and take any question without breaking character. You feel an “in the trenches” thrill of working with your group and even trading discoveries with the other detectives (attendees).
It is possible to nitpick. There were perhaps too many props to examine, including some 15 pieces of paper (letters and bills of sale, for example) to read. I might have preferred an outcome where 80% could guess the correct killer, not 40%. One actor, playing the murder victim, surely had talent wasted playing dead and could have been a 6th murder suspect.
But our main complaint is that the experience, once the run is finished, will never be produced again! Killer in the Conservatory is a nation-level experience that deserves a touring company or a “murder mystery in a box” game set. In all of our travels, spending nearly 20 years looking for the most creative, best organized, and most interactive events, this is the best murder mystery night that we’ve seen. They are ready for bigger funding, national exposure, and larger audiences.
Escapism Productions very kindly agreed to an interview, with many willing to speak, including Producer and Director Jackson Kulinski, and Costume Designer and Artisan Jess Bolduc, who each also acted that night.
Events INSIDER: Wow. Where did this idea come from? Have you always been performers?
Jess Bolduc: I would say I’ve been a performer since I was a kid. Got involved with immersive theater back in, I guess like 2015, 2016 in Massachusetts.
Jess Bolduc: I was a haunted house actor, I did work Ren Faires, but I was always looking for something more. And so I started coming up with the idea of what if we did narratives that are event specific, like site specific. So I founded this company and basically what we do is we travel to different locations, we see what they’re looking for to fill their yearly program with and we notch ourselves in there.
Jackson Kulinski: And for me, I started acting when I was three years old in an activity play and never stopped. And then all my background was musical theater and Shakespeare specifically. There’s a wonderful, wonderful place in Middletown, Connecticut, called Oddfellows Playhouse, and they do summer Shakespeare for children every year. And it’s this wonderful program that literally shaped me as an actor.
Events INSIDER: None of your actors referred to notes. I was impressed by the level of memorization. Did you rehearse the heck out of this? How did you get to that level of proficiency?
Jess Bolduc: So we use a process that’s called retro scripting. So if you ever hear about the stories of directors who are like, “We just got the actors in a room. We told them these are the beats they kind of have to hit in the story. And then we just let them go and we edited out the parts that didn’t work and kept the parts that did.” And voila, you have a movie. That’s kind of what we do in the rehearsal space where we go, “Okay, here’s the story. We know what everyone’s motives were. We know what their motivations are. We kind of have a feeling for their personalities. Now let’s build it together.”
Jess Bolduc: It’s why I rarely credit myself as a writer for these things. If you notice that there was a producer and director, but the collaborative writing process is all of us working in a roundtable setting and then finessing it over the course of weeks or months, depending on how long we developed the show.
Jackson Kulinski: …It’s usually first rehearsal we all gather up together and spend a little time of, so who’s this person that you are? Let’s learn about them to the point where you could ask us anything and we’d have an answer for you because we spent time learning and making them people. So I had people asking me what was my favorite color, what was my favorite food? And because of how we do retro scripting, I had those answers at the top of my head.
Events INSIDER: The pattern that you use, the five rooms and the circular progression, I’ve only ever seen that twice. At The House of Seven Gables in Salem and at Fear Town in Seekonk. Where did you get that from?
Jess Bolduc: Honestly, in this particular setting, it was because it was the easiest way for us to move a larger amount of people… Our concern was what happens if all 50 people decide they want to go to station number one? And so we came up with the rotation and then the time limits, so everyone gets that time.
Jackson Kulinski: It’s also because it’s the best way to show off this location because we’ve got both of the beautiful gardens, even as you walk by, you can see the winter garden outside.
Events INSIDER: You’ve seen Sleep No More obviously.
Jackson Kulinski: Yes.
Events INSIDER: And you know that unless you run around, you can miss stuff.
Jess Bolduc: Yeah. Sleep No More very much inspired that particular format of storytelling for us just because it was very, very interesting.
Events INSIDER: It’s chaotic though.
Events INSIDER: Final question. What’s next? Do you want to make a box set or something or try to train other groups to do this?
Jackson Kulinski: The next big project we’re working on, because we have our calendars full up until mid-2026.
Events INSIDER: You’re not going to close this performance though, right? Because you worked so hard on this.
Jackson Kulinski: The way we do shows, they’re one and done.
Jess Bolduc: They’re one and done.
Jackson Kulinski: We do one full run and then we never do it again.
Jackson Kulinski: Yeah, we’ll come back next year with a different show. This show’s a continuation of the one we did two years ago where we still have Lapis. These are all his cases. So we have our own Sherlock Holmes.
Jess Bolduc: He’s like our Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot type of character.
Jess Bolduc: So the next show we have is going to be in Westport, Connecticut. I’m just the producer for that one. That is actually your show, Jackson.
Jackson Kulinski: Yes. That’s my show. I’ve written it and directed it. It’s at the Westport Historical Society. And it’s going to be a performance of Dracula that gets interrupted by the police because… there’s a speakeasy that they ended up breaking into and trying to catch people up for smuggling. It’s set in the 1920s, but it’s a performance that’s interrupted. So a murder mystery is happening in the middle of a very beloved play.
Jess Bolduc: End of March, early April. So last weekend in March, and then April.
Events INSIDER: Thank you very much!
For more, see https://nebg.org/killer_in_the_conservatory/. Killer in the Conservatory is unfortunately already sold out for the season, but you can get on the NEBG and Escapism Productions email lists for next time. And see the next event coming to the Garden’s conservatories, Pixels + Petals, An Orchid Exhibition. Running from February 8 – March 16, Pixels + Petals features over 2,000 living orchids juxtaposed with artwork inspired by the aesthetic of retro video games. The exhibition includes nighttime special events with a cash bar, board games and video games, sculptures, and creative lighting, and, on different evenings, either a jazz band, or a DJ or band playing music from the 80s and 90s. https://nebg.org/pixels-and-petals.