★★★★★
A vengeful murderer, a historical castle, and a ginormous cucumber makes a murder mystery that had its audience dying with laughter.
Of course, no one will ever get to see “The Case of the Ever-Growing Cucumber” again. Organised by the incredibly skilled Degrees of Error company, Murder, She Didn’t Write is an improvised murder mystery where the audience chooses the circumstances and the actors submit to their will.
Before the show had started, I was gritting my teeth. I was one of the first to arrive and had never seen an improv show before. I dreaded the possibility that the show might not be funny and I would have to be one of the 12 people to force a laugh out to an ineffective joke.
Luckily, the audience filled in—and I laughed so much it hurt.
At the helm, is Agatha Crusty (Lizzy Skrzypiec), the eternally entertaining host. The show is framed around her memory of a case. To recall that memory, however, she needs to ask the audience what it is about. Some audience members put their hands up, and others yelled enthusiastically, potential settings for the murder mystery. A gender reveal, a police ball, and an inauguration were all suggested until a school trip was eventually chosen. The same thing happened for the murder weapon of choice which, peculiarly, ended up being an ever-growing cucumber.
The most crucial character was a member of the audience. Agatha Crusty calls on her assistant, Jerkins, to help recall the murder. The casting of Jerkins is a simple process: Agatha Crusty throws a deerstalker hat into the audience, and whoever catches it gets the role. With this role, they get the power to choose the victim and the murderer. Sadly uncredited, the person who played Jerkins in this production did a great job at making a story rife with plot twists.
And finally, the suspects. Brightly coloured and sparklingly talented, every character brought something uniquely hilarious to the show. There was the dowdy Betty Gold (Rachael Procter-Lane), whose wooing strategies turned her into a slapstick starlet and Ms. Violet (Caitlin Campbell) with her lightning-quick wit. Henri Vert (Peter Baker) was a master of innuendo, and the war-mongering Bertram Blue (Stephen Clements) brought out everyone’s inner schadenfreude. And of course, there was the victim, Roger Red (Douglas Walker), who had the funniest backstory of them all. Needless to say, all of their performances were fantastic.
It is impossible not to give the show five stars because any failure simply made it better. The company were unafraid to point out when a fellow performer made a mistake, leading to an even more ridiculous story. Some of the best moments were when performers broke character. At the end of the day, Murder, She Didn’t Write prioritises a good laugh, first, a tight show, second.
Murder, She Didn’t Write is currently touring the UK.
Words by Harriet MacDonald
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