An Improvised Murder - Review

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Thu 18 Jul 2024

Birmingham audiences have really embraced improv and there was no better evidence for that than a sell-out crowd at the city’s Old Joint Stock Theatre for the madcap adventure An Improvised Murder.

Forming part of Birmingham Fest and performed by Foghorn Unscripted, the off-the-hoof show develops the story gradually based on audience suggestions – slowly revealing characters, motives, the victim, the crime and finally the killer.



Before the show begins each audience seat has a slip of paper in which we are asked to suggest locations, character traits and frequently spoken phrases which are then read throughout the show, prompting the tale.

This explains why the murder took place in a mobile phone shop, why one of the cast was constantly being ‘emotional’ and another was inevitably ‘bored’ by whatever was happening.

With six cast members, including one on sound effects, the story passes back and forth between the actors - each egging the other on, creating opportunities for humour and story development, even in the most bizarre of situations.

There are plenty of long-running gags such as the womanizer who believes it’s OK for him to ask that his partner be ‘exclusive’ while he’s off sowing his wild oats, the millionaire Lottery winner who works in the phone shop for a hobby and then finds it boring and the waiter who keeps forcing free hors d’oeuvres on guests at a jazz club.

By the end of the first half, we have a victim, killed with a golden phone in the shop and potentially four suspects. Over the interval, the audience is again called on for help in providing questions for the police to put to those suspects so they range from the straightforward probes into motives to the totally off-the-wall.

It all makes for lots of silly fun - with much of the humour created by the ad hoc nature of improv. The cast works perfectly together, bouncing off ideas, pushing each other with leftfield comments and supporting each other when the challenges occur so that it all feels like a very good-natured evening despite the fact we are watching a murder mystery.

The small space of the Old Joint Stock is ideal for a show of this kind as we are all so close we are part of the story – even while watching safely from the sidelines. The team were keen to stress that their brand of improv doesn’t involve audience members being on stage or even called out from the audience. All the suggestions are written on slips of paper and handed in so even the most shrinking violets among us are safe from being in the spotlight.

Birmingham Fest continues until 28 July with a mixed programme including drama, comedy, music, drag and dance. See here for more information.

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