We understand how enjoyable a good murder mystery can be, and over the last few years the number of people seeking permission to perform our games to raise funds for charity or to make money commercially has risen dramatically. We love that you’re choosing our game for your event, and to help facilitate that in the future we’re now providing a Performance Licence to keep everything legal.

DO I NEED A PERFORMANCE LICENCE?

If you’re using one of our games for your personal use, with friends and family, the answer is no. For any other use the answer is probably yes. Our licence covers games where the intellectual property is wholly owned by ourselves, such as Murder Mystery Theatre and Murder Mystery Flexi Party®, a registered trademark of D'Avekki Studios Limited. For other games please contact the copyright holders directly.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Contact us by email to let us know which game you’d like to use, how many performances you’re planning, when and where they’re being held, and how much money you intend to raise at each performance. We’ll then send an invoice (if applicable) for the licence fee and the performance licence after that (see a draft copy here).

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

Our performance licence is based on how much money you intend to raise overall (maximum gross receipts). If you’re not charging anyone to view or participate in the performance, then a notional “ticket” fee of £10 per person at the venue will be used - so if 100 people are invited to watch for free, the expected gross receipts would be £1000.

If people are paying for meals or other entertainments during the performance, the cost of these should be included too - so for a murder mystery and a three course meal at £25 per head for 100 people, the expected gross receipts are £2500.

MAXIMUM GROSS RECEIPTS | PERFORMANCE LICENCE FEE

Up to £1000 | £50

Up to £2500 | £125

Up to £5000 | £250

£5000+ (POA)
 

You will also need to purchase the game you’re going to be using.
 

CHARITABLE USE
We generally approve all charitable uses for free but you’ll still need to obtain a performance licence from us, and we’ll need your registered charity number. If you’re not a registered charity we may ask for a fee which will be donated to charity too.

WHY?
Over the last 15 years we’ve generally said yes to everyone that wants to perform our games to raise money, for free. It’s becoming more and more difficult to do that as more and more people are running multiple commercial (non-charitable) events with our content. The performance licence is a legal document that protects our copyright but still lets you do your thing within reasonable constraints (like not giving out copies of our entire game to the audience!). Everyone that watches or participates in a game someone else runs (for payment or otherwise) won’t be buying that game from us, but now you can legally make money from our writing and give a little back whilst (hopefully) promoting our games and spreading joy with them.

Performance licences are offered at the sole discretion of D’Avekki Studios Limited.