Murder Village | David Massingham & Brisbane Comedy Festival
It was Felicity Readwell in the church with the … tiger skin rug?
Welcome to Murder Village, a small, quaint British town, circa 1953, which just happens to have the highest rate of murder per capita in the world. Not only that, but each case is different from the last, with every mystery trope and joke milked until their last drop, so you’ll want to come back again and again.
Murder Village isn’t your average whodunnit, it’s an award-winning improv comedy show by David Massingham that has toured all over the country. Created in 2016 here in Meanjin, they celebrated their 100th show as a part of their season at the 2023 Brisbane Comedy Festival.
It’s easy to see what this show has had such a long life. Unlike your typical whodunnit, the fun doesn’t just come from solving the mystery, it comes from watching a team of expert improvisers figure out a one hour murder mystery show in real time. Using the votes and ideas of the audience, they draw from all the tropes and cliches of murder mysteries that we all know so well to create a beautifully absurd ode to the genre.
Using an online form, the show starts with the audience voting for who in the cast will be the murderer and the victim, and offering our ideas for both murder weapons that would fit into 1950s Britain and a tell-tale clue that would help to solve the case. Each show has a different case of characters to choose from. The suspects in my show joining determined librarian Felicity (Anna Razz) were tongue-tied publican Lawrence Potsworthy (Jason Geary), pompous retired army officer Colonel Oliver Redgrace (Luke Rimmelzwaan) and immoral rector Rev. Lucius Sinn (Wade Robinson). Leading (and narrating) the case were unimaginative Police Inspectory Owen Gullet (Massingham) and French Detective Monsieur Aragon Pewter (Lliam Amor).
After we voted, the cast got to work and quickly created a world of intrigue where each of the four characters established their relationships and motive to murder each other. For the improv nerds out there, they used the La Ronde structure to establish the characters, their relationships and the story. For those who haven’t studied improv though, it would have appeared seemless and hilariously stupid, as all good improv should be.
It’s always impossible to adequately describe the plot of long form improv, but the motives for murder included spent church coffers, the horror of dog-eared library books, an epic bar tab, hidden diaries and a class action over a poorly placed tiger skin rug. While, there were a few small moments where cast members fumbled for the joke or how to connect the story points together, the performers kept the show moving at a cracking pace, and their improvised silliness kept audience chuckling from beginning to end. The cast were uniformly great throughout, with Rimmelzwaan’s booming presence as the pompously stupid army officer and Amor’s fourth wall breaking French Detective, particularly when he kept cracking up from the ridiculousnous of the unfolding plot, particularly being highlights.
Murder Village is great night out for lovers of absurd comedy, Agatha Cristie style murder mysteries and all those inbetween. With a rotating cast of some of the best improvisers in the country, it’s also the perfect introduction to improv and a show you’ll want to see again and again. And not just because it will never be the same show twice.
