Summary: When the decaying body of a man falls onto the stage during a performance, Murdoch is faced with a mystery involving mistaken identity, real estates deals, a star struck Inspector Brackenreid, and more.
Tropes:
- Due to the Dead: Murdoch pays for the reburying and decent plot of the man who was killed to hide the cause of death of the man whose corpse was hidden in the theatre.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: A partially decomposed body falls onto the stage of the Grand Theatre during a performance of Macbeth. Inspector Brackenried is revealed to be a great fan of the bard. There are many other various shout-outs because the theatre group are Shakespearean actors.
- The Scottish Trope: Both the actors and Brackenried believe the theatrical superstition about saying the name of "that play".
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The story bears some similarity to the 1919 disappearance of Ambrose Small, owner of Toronto's Grand Opera House. During the investigation, it was revealed that Small had a secret room in the Opera House, in which he entertained several mistresses. Small mysteriously disappeared on 12/02/1919, and his body was never recovered (nor did it fall out of the opera house ceiling).
