- May 19, 2024
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When people hear the term the Knave of Hearts, a few things come to mind. Literary minds would think of the character from Lewis Carroll’s book, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Old film buffs may think of the 1954 film about the adventures of a French philanderer in Paris and London. The term may also refer simply to the Jack of Hearts in a traditional deck of playing cards.
However, for me, after my dinner party experience last weekend, Knave of Hearts will forever refer to the Party Zone game created in 1986.
In an attempt to spice things up, my talented theater friends, Dave and Mandi Pandich, had the brilliant idea of gathering a group of non-theater friends to participate in this game, which acted as a dinner party and gave guests roles as socialites at a fancy party on the French Riviera in 1948.
Each guest had a mysterious past and some secrets to protect, and each had one or more missions that involved the other guests at the party. Little did we know, many of these missions conflicted with one another.
I’m alway up for an adventure, so I agreed to be one of the 12 guests/players at the party, even though I retired from my acting career after middle school. It was imperative that I was sure I would be 100% able to attend, as there was some preparation to be done ahead of time. While the script had no lines, I was instructed to spend time learning and developing my character.
My name was Britta Larsen. I was a lovely, modest, soft-spoken Danish socialite. I studied in Paris and was tres intelligent. But like every character, I had a secret: I was actually an agent with Eiffel Insurance, a jewelry insurance agency. There was a jewel thief on the loose, and rumor was that he would be at the party. My mission was not only to lure the thief into stealing my jewels instead of those of my clients, but to also catch the thief.
Of course, there was also some personal business of blackmailing another party goer to complete. It wouldn’t be a game of high society scandal without a little blackmail.
The Knave of Hearts party ended up being the coolest, geekiest thing I have done in a long time. That night, a house full of 20-somethings transformed into jewel thieves, members of La Sûreté Nationale and members of the Society of Monaco.
While I did manage to sell my blackmail to the right person, I ended up being a poor excuse for a thief catcher.
There was scandal and deceit but most importantly, it was a night of good food, friends and fun.
This might sound like a geeky thing to say, but I recommend that everyone participate in a role-playing game at least once. You learn things about yourself. For instance, I learned that when I try to talk like a rich European, I throw random French words into English sentences. And my accent could use some work. Oh well, c’est la vie!
Willing to share a secret family recipe? Email [email protected].
