We received notice this week that the theater group New Paradise Laboratories is putting on a performance called Gumshoe, “an interactive immersion in detection,” at the Free Library on April 8.

The production seems to be some sort of a riff on The Murders on The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. Not a whole lot more information is forthcoming. We believe the notice is designed more to entice or intrigue than to inform.

“New Paradise Laboratories' GUMSHOE is an expedition into the treasures of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Rosenbach. It blends disguise, infiltration, forgotten rooms—half-truths, and bald-faced lies—to identify the difference between fact, fiction, and falsehood.”

Quite right. But also: What?