WHAT do you do when you’re set up for a murder mystery show set at the very end of the Roaring Twenties and some wag in the audience chooses a hot tub party as the scene of the crime?
Well, if you can think as fast on your feet as the razor-sharp minds behind Murder She Didn’t Write, you put your peerless improve skills to work and create a unique Jazz Age jape.
My guess was that the English country house stage set is meant to prompt the audience in a certain direction when suggesting a setting or occasion in which the action should take place, and this seemed to be proven by the facts the narrator and sleuth for the show is named Detective Agatha Crusty of England Yard, and the fact some of the cast were dressed in flapper girl garb.
But of the three options given, Crusty’s sidekick for the show – chosen by a cap tossed into the crowd – went for the anachronistic hot tub.
Personally, after my career switch to primary teaching, I fancied someone’s suggestion of a school parents’ night as I know for a fact there are murderous thoughts aplenty at such occasions…
But no matter, the cast dealt with whatever was thrown at them with quick thinking – and no small amount of innuendo – to give us a comical murder mystery that would have Hercule Poirot snorting into his Dubonnet.
The cast seemed to be having as much fun as the crowd, trying to make each other corpse throughout (see what I did there?!), and the way they wrapped each bizarre element up – including invisible bagpipes – during the very Christie-esque denouement was masterful.
I also loved the rebuttal from one suspect when accused of murder – “I wanted to know him more, not less!”
You’re asked to guess the identity of the murderer and I was more OCD than CID for erroneously plumping for the brilliant Pedro, an oddly Italian-sounding Spaniard, basically because of his uncanny resemblance to the late Michael Hutchence.
This is Murder She Didn’t Write’s tenth year at the Fringe, seven of those being sell-outs, and the fact they’re playing at their biggest venue yet shows what a runaway Fringe hit this has become.
Murder She Didn’t Write, 15.50, Assembly George Square – Gordon Aikman Theatre until August 26.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/murder-she-didn-t-write
