FIRST THERE was the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, set in Las Vegas, then came the hugely lucrative spin-off television programmes CSI: Miamiand CSI: New York.
Now, its army of Irish fans will be able to enjoy CSI: The Experience, an interactive exhibition at the Ambassador theatre in Dublin, with a cast of characters that will be familiar to the programmes' viewers.
CSI, with its mixture of old-fashioned whodunit and cutting edge technology, has been one of the most popular television franchises of this decade.
It is now available in 180 countries and is the second-most popular drama programme on RTÉ2 after Home and Away, attracting about 400,000 viewers a week for the three programmes.
Visitors to CSI: The Experiencewill pay €18 each to "investigate" one of three crime scenes.
One of these scenes involves the death of a model whose body is found in the parking lot of a motel. Another is of a man who is found slumped in the driver’s seat of a car which has crashed into a suburban house.
In the third, a skull and bones are found in the desert. Was it murder or a lost hiker?
Along the way, visitors are informed about the high-tech wizardry now used to solve crimes. For instance, the real CSI can often tell how long a person has been dead by the size of the maggots surrounding it.
Fingerprinting, toxicology, DNA sampling, ballistics and dental records are all examined in detail and will provide clues as to solving the crime. Visitors who solve the mysteries will get a commendation from the redoubtable and omniscient Gilbert “Gil” Grissom, the night-shift supervisor of the Clark County, Nevada CSI (forensics) team, whose catchphrase was: “The human body is the perfect specimen”.
Visitors who want to solve all three crimes can pay €50. The organisers say 20 per cent of those who come are repeat visitors – and there will be plenty of time for repeat visits.
The exhibition runs from Saturday until December.Due to the graphic nature of some of the cases, CSI: The Experienceis not for those under 10.
Christoph Rahofer, president and CEO of EMS Exhibits, which is hosting it said it had many of the attributes of a treasure hunt.
“The show is so successful because it is a combination of education and entertainment and people can use their intelligence to solve the crime,” he said.
“We consider that this has a highly educational aspect to it. We have a lot of schools who come to visit and they can incorporate it into their educational activities. Teaching kids these days need a strong interactive element.”
See: dublin.csiexhibit.com
