Uncovering the mysteries of Murder Village: An improvised whodunnit

After a sell-out run at Fringe World 2024, the team behind Murder Village returns with a new 2025 season. A murder mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit boasts a stellar cast of Australian improvisers and comedians bringing an entertaining array of improvised chaos to The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden from Saturday, February 1, to Sunday, February 16—with tickets on sale now. BEC WELDON caught up with director, producer, and performer David Massingham to talk about improvisation and murder.

Hiya David, thanks for joining us to talk about Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit! How are you feeling in the lead-up to the 2025 festival?

Excited! We had a real blast in 2024 playing our debut Perth season at Fringe World. There were secret societies, murderous trysts, and red herrings galore—all very appropriate for a 1950s English village. We were lucky enough to sell out that run, so this time we are back with a bigger space and a longer season and some of the best improvising comedians in the country.

What new tricks and tomfoolery do you have in store for 2025 audiences?

More mysteries, more murders… and more sleuths! Last year, all our whodunnits were solved by Artemis Martin—a know-it-all 1950s whodunnit novelist played by Louisa Fitzhardinge. This year, Artemis will be one of three sleuths solving our shows. Come early in the run to see Amberly Cull playing Miss Jemima Marmalade, a sweet-as-pie elderly sleuth very much in the Miss Marple tradition, while the middle run of shows will see Kathryn Tohill playing Murder Village’s newest sleuth, Verity Garner, a shrewd housekeeper who knows all the gossip around this murderous little English village.

Tell us about the creative process behind the show itself. How was the show devised?

While our show is improvised—made up on the spot with the aid of our brilliant audience’s suggestions—we still do our homework pre-season! We are lucky to have an amazing cast of improvisers conjuring up a new mystery each night, but we develop the characters in advance so the audience can vote for who will be the victim and the killer before the show starts. It’s a blind ballot, of course, so that everyone in the crowd can have the fun of playing sleuth from their chair! We then improvise the character’s relationships, the plot, the crime, and the laughs. With 12 shows, there are a lot of bodies that will be piling up on the Murder Village Green…

As improvised theatre, directing must have been somewhat of a challenge! Can you talk us through how you approached directing a show that is ultimately different every time?

I’m on stage each show working as both director and performer—playing the only policeman in town, an unimaginative plod named Owen Gullet. That means I get to direct the show from the inside, through narration and the discovery of clues that might help our amateur sleuth, the actual detective, to solve the crime.

But improvised comedy needs a lot of trust between the performers; we are all very used to working together to let the story come out, so frequently I won’t need to do much directing, and I can just join in the fun!

Why murder? What do you think draws audiences to stories of crime and murder and holds them there?

Whodunnits are in vogue! From the Knives Out mysteries to the Kenneth Branagh Poirots that have recently spun gold at the box office, murder mysteries have had a big resurgence. I’m not convinced that they ever really went away, though—Agatha Christie has still got JK Rowling beat as the highest-selling author of all time. I think it’s all about creating a satisfying puzzle box for the audience, backed by the cosy whodunnit style.

Returning to the show for a second year, was it a different experience from 2024? What new lessons and insights did you bring to the project?

Since last February, we’ve had sell-out runs in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Brisbane and debuted a new variation on our format set entirely within a heritage-listed chapel. Every new whodunnit we wrangle up, we find ourselves surprised how varied and unique each show can be, and that’s something exciting to bring back to Perth for our follow-up season.

As an artist, how do you train and prepare for those improvised moments?

Improvisation is all about connection, so we spend a good amount of time before each show ensuring that we are all on the same page and bouncing well off each other. We do rehearse the show format as well—I know that sounds absurd, given we are making up the show each night—but that’s not about preparing storylines in advance, but rather maintaining and growing that connection.

The show boasts some strong improvisers from around Australia, including Jason Geary (Thank God You’re Here, Utopia), Amberly Cull (Galati! The Musical), Amanda Buckley (The Side Project, Fires) and Louisa Fitzhardinge. How did these collaborations happen?

We are lucky to have a supremely experienced and talented cast. All of us have performed together a lot across the years in a wide variety of improvised shows and formats. For Murder Village, I have cast some of my favourite people to play with and watch on stage, and I think that friendship and camaraderie come across with some very funny and clever shows. 

What are you most looking forward to sharing with audiences in this year’s show?

We can’t wait to give Perth audiences the chance to solve their own, unique, never-to-be-seen-again murder mystery! They help create the show through their suggestions, and I think everyone wants to leave with the bragging rights that they worked out whodunnit.

Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit opens in The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden from Saturday, February 1, to Sunday, February 16, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au