By Nick Pilgrim
The Melbourne Fringe Festival is an annual tradition which hits the ground running every spring. Since its inception, the three-week long event grows in leaps and bounds with each passing season.
Thanks to more than 500 choices on offer this year alone, 2025 is no exception.
With a multitude of entertainment options for all age groups to consider, genres include cabaret, comedy, dance, experimental, film, theatre, visual arts, words and ideas.
Just to name a few.
Several months ago, I wrote about how whodunnits are making a big comeback to the local live scene.
Recent outings such as And Then There Were None, Cluedo, Dial M For Murder, The Mousetrap, Rebecca, The Play That Goes Wrong, and The 39 Steps are capturing and reigniting public imagination in spades. It seems that audiences love solving a crime happening right before their very eyes.
Taking this notion to the next level, Murder In The Graveyard: A Murder Village Improvised Whodunnit invites punters to be an integral part of the overall experience as well.
Prior to each performance, we are asked to choose:
- The Murderer
- The Victim
- The Murder Weapon
- Important Clues
- The Mystery’s Title
On this premise alone, the group’s challenge is to build their act around these random plot points each night.
Drawing on Theatre Sports and television classics such as Father Brown, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Miss Marple, Midsomer Murders, Murder She Wrote, and Only Murders In the Building for inspiration, our fascination is watching how the cast builds these ideas into every unfolding story. The hook being, no two shows or outcomes are identical.
Since the award-winning troupe’s commencement in 2016, this celebrated organisation has clearly done their homework.
Murder Village plays on hilariously clichéd character tropes such as the grizzled private eye, the overtly charming vicar, the gossip-mongering barmaid, the sexually frustrated librarian, the title-conscious snob, and the menacing town loner.
Running for 60 minutes, Saturday evening’s show introduced us to the townsfolk, ways they interacted with one another, possible motives, the murder itself, and how the crime was solved.
Watching the expert team relish making dialogue up on the spot while keeping the intricate story on track is the definite high point of this experience. How they walk such a delicious, yet unique tightrope each time simply defies explanation.
The key to its success perhaps lies in the fact that members are gleaned from some of our best-loved companies such as The Big Hoo-Haa! Melbourne, Impro Melbourne and Impromptunes. On this occasion, players included Jason Geary, Kellie-Anne Kimber, Izaak Lior, David Massingham, Amy Moule, and Jenni Townsend.
It should be noted that on-stage keyboard accompaniment added to the spooky tongue-in-cheek mood.
Doing much of the heavy lifting required, the Victorian Trades Hall situated on the city’s edge in Carlton is the ideal venue for this kind of journey. Long on baronial atmosphere, Solidarity Hall’s intimate space keeps proceedings up close and personal for everyone involved.
Playing until the festival’s conclusion on Sunday October 19, Murder In The Graveyard is definite bang for your buck and tailor-made for fans of Agatha Christie and the like.
