Murder, She Didn’t Write is a classic murder mystery show that has sold out eight previous fringe runs. Well, classic but with a twist – it is entirely improvised. The cast don’t know who will be murdered, where they will be murdered, the weapon, or even who the murderer is. This allows for some hilarious moments but also a remarkably cohesive show.
The show starts with some quite intense audience participation – I would maybe advise to sit nearer the front if you’re wary of this, or just be ready to duck. The chosen audience member plays an important role in the rest of the show, selecting the murderer and the murdered, from a deck of coloured cards.
Because it’s improvised, suggestions are taken from the audience for the place the murder took place and the weapon the murder was committed with. Some people in the audience come up with crazy suggestions – when I saw it, someone had clearly just seen Oppenheimer, as they made several atomic bomb themed suggestions, one of which was chosen as the murder weapon. The scene of the crime when I saw the show was an all year round Christmas shop’s half price sale. If it sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is. But it’s also incredibly clever, and the cast are clearly very talented.
It’s very easy to sit back and enjoy the show, forgetting that it’s entirely improvised. The cast manage to keep the story going, but also introduce running themes and jokes and build relationships and characters. What could just be one line or throwaway jokes get picked up and run throughout the show.
Towards the end, we were asked to guess who the murderer was. With an improvised show, where the murderer is decided only by a coloured card, it is not easy to guess this, so if you are an avid murder mystery fan who loves to solve the crime, you may have to forget about a neat, tied up, sensible ending. But that doesn’t matter, as you will be laughing, or even crying, all the way to the big reveal.
It’s difficult to review improv, what with it changing every time. But Murder, She Didn’t Write is fantastic, hilarious and an absolute must see this fringe – if you can still get tickets.
Murder, She Didn’t Write is on at 2.40pm every day until the 28th August in Pleasance One. Tickets are still available for every showing, here.
Image courtesy of Lee Pullen, provided to The Student as press material.