‘Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit’ // Melbourne International Comedy Festival & David Massingham

‘Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit’ was fabulous.

Everybody loves a good murder whodunnit. What’s a mystery without a detail oriented detective, sly suspects, a red herring or two and of course… a body. Great right! The perfect formula. Now let’s toss that aside and improvise. Yes, improvise. This reviewer would like to introduce the spectacular and comical performance of David Massingham & the Butterfly Club’s ‘Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit’. If you’re enthralled with a murder mystery then you’ll love this, and if you like villages too… then, well, you’ll love this as well. The stage is set, and Murder Village is ready for, well, a murder! Audience members are tasked with challenging the performers by anonymously voting who in our murder story dies, who slays our tragic victim, the murder weapon and any tell-tale clues that are key to the whole murder case. Now that’s a perfect formula. 

With a sellout season in last year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, this fun-filled, Agatha Christie inspired spectacular has returned to the stage. This year we rewind to the 1950s and meet four new suspects: Professor Ian Zago (a bombastic academic), Sister Mary Hale (a scatterbrained Irish nun), Carmalita Closer (a Spanish tarot reader), and Jericho Spade (an adventuring archeologist). With the suspects at the ready it’s not complete without our incompetent local English police detective sided with the French amateur murder mystery sleuth. This comical improvised murder mystery is set and ready to be different every night. It’s now up to the audience to decide who lives, who dies, and the clues needed to crack the case. 

The performance had a brilliant musical ambience with a live pianist accompanying the show. This gave the scenes added depth and texture, which provided a natural flow and seamlessly connected one improvised scene into the other. Voice over and narration was included to provide prompted direction to the performing cast and at times the occasional ad libbed quip to add comedic effect or a spark of direction. With limited to zero props, in the world of Agatha Christie, one had to use one’s imagination. Right down to the murder weapon, which in this performance was a glass-bottle encased ornamental ship. 

With a limited set and props this ultimately gave the cast the absolute freedom to create the audience prompted scene desired. The cast were accurately dressed in 1950s era costumes: our pompous professor in formal wear coupled with academic cap & gown, the whimsical Spanish tarot reader in bejewelled, flowy gypsy wear, our God loving Irish nun wearing her habit and headpiece, the adventurous archaeologist dressed in his khaki shorts, jacket, and boots and lastly our two detectives both dressed in formal 1950s “Agatha inspired” suit and tie attire, with an included cigarette and bowler hat for the French amateur sleuth. 

Costumes, set, props and pre-voted audience clues and prompts at the ready, all that was left to do was sit back, relax, and laugh! The experience was abundantly clever, hilarious and a complete joy to watch. The cast are quick-witted, fearless, superb performers who appear to enjoy performing their craft up on stage as much as the audience enjoyed watching it. It was an honour to watch the professionals at work! 

Our improvised ‘whodunnit’ performance encapsulated excellent story telling.  It was a great example of entertaining the masses through improvised play with the cast vibing off each other to create a marvellous piece of comedic theatre. Committed to their archetype characters, the entire performance showed great form and dedication to their individual character roles. 

Performing as a cast of six, our suspects were the body of the show, giving all the comical moments you could ask for, however, the inept English police inspector (and narrator) alongside the French amateur sleuth directed our story from beginning to end. This cast performed so well together that in this reviewers’ eyes there were no standout performers, just a troupe of perfect comedic actors that were all true masters of their craft. 

‘Murder Village: An Improvised Murder Whodunnit’ is completely hilarious and I urge anyone to go see it. With a previous sellout season I wouldn’t wait. Just go! With no two shows the same and a cast of true professionals I hope this is a concept that just keeps on going. It’s the perfect formula of audience participation, comedy as well as mystery.

‘Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit’ performs until Sunday, 21st of April 2024 at The Butterfly Club. For more information visit Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit | Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2024