Design Your Own Murder
“Lady Violet poked in the kitchen with the silver corkscrew?”
“Mr Gold whacked with the telescope in Parliament?”
Example Scenarios
“About as popular as a Tory Party Victory Celebration”
Someone said it!
The largest venue at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Gordon Aikman Theatre was completely sold out. The very well-done farce from Theatre Improvisation Company, Degrees of Error is playing there. This is their tenth year at the Festival. Murder, She Didn’t Write is not an Agatha Christie play but rather a spoof on the formula.
It starts with the Mistress of Ceremonies sitting in a comfortable chair at the edge of the stage. She is Detective Agatha Crusty (nice pun!) of England Yard. She explains a murder will happen and that with the help of her detective assistant, Jenkins (chosen by the toss of a deerstalker hat thrown into the audience) they are going to solve it.
Firstly, like all the best Cluedo games there need to be parameters for the crime, so the audience are invited to shout out suggestions. Settled on were Haggis, a reverse corkscrew that could only put corks into bottles rather than take them out and Scottish wine; rejected were Tesco Lunchtime meal deal!
The murder victim is chosen at random by Jenkins, along with the murderer, neither of whom do we know. The time is 1929, probably a Friday. A wealthy spinster of 41 is being served by her Butler. They are invited to dinner by a wine grower neighbour who has a French grape expert visiting. A Chef, the man wearing the chef’s hat, is going to cook Haggis to his special recipe for the guests. The vines (invisible) have grown so much, that they have to be climbed over, or under, to get through to the house. All of these events give opportunities for great farcical moments played with considerable gusto by the cast.
A murder is committed and in true Christie style the detective goes through the cast explaining why they might have done it, before exposing the murderer, with the audience’s help.
This Company has skilled actors who know their business. The events move at a pace and as the cast is shuffled for every new performance so nothing is exactly the same. I doubt if anybody in the audience did not enjoy the show. Murder, She Didn’t Write is awarded Five Fringe Festival Stars (FFS) by Theatrevibe, the site that doesn’t do stars.
Production Notes
Murder, She Didn’t Write
Directed by Lizzy Skrzypiec
Cast
A selection of :
Lizzy Skrzypiec
Rachael Procter-Lane
Harry Allmark
Peter Baker
Rosalind Beeson
Sylvia Bishop
Emily Brady
Caitlin Campbell
Stephen Clements
Alice Lamb
Peta Maurice
Douglas Walker
Matthew Whittle
Pianist
Sara Garrard
Creatives
Director: Lizzy Skrzypiec
Degrees of Error
Wildpark Entertainment
Information
Running Time: One hour 10 minutes
Booking to 25th August 2024 at 3.50pm
Theatre:
Gordon Aiken Theatre
Assembly George Square
Telephone: 0131 623 3030
Website: http://www.degreesoferror.com/
Reviewed by Malcolm Beckett
at the Gordon Aikman Theatre
on 19th August 2024