After smash hit sell-out runs in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, the award-winning festival favourite Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit returns to Arts Centre Melbourne for the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
A unique experience wherein no two mysteries are the same, the shows are expertly crafted by some of the country’s most well-known improvisers, including Jason Geary (Thank God You’re Here, The iSelect Guy), Lliam Amor (The Twelve, Escape From Pretoria), Rhys Auteri (Late Night with the Devil) and Amanda Buckley (The Project, The Newsreader).
Geary was initially invited by David Massingham, the creator of the format, to be a part of the show.
” I’d seen the show when it was in Brisbane and was very keen to be part of the ensemble when it came to Melbourne,” says Geary.” It’s a super strong group of improvisers with decades of combined experience, all performing together in a character rich, narrative forward improvised play. To an improv performer, that combination of experience, structure, and playfulness is a huge draw.”
A huge milestone, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the show having premiered in a slightly different format in Brisbane. Geary considers himself to be lucky enough to have performed in it since the move from Brisbane to its Melbourne home eight years ago. He believes the draw of the format is twofold.
“For performers, we love to play grounded characters in a genre that is full of characters that we grew up watching in English murder mysteries. We know who we are playing each night of the show, and we alternate characters each night, so that keeps us on our toes, because the chances are you’ve never played with this particular combination of characters before. It’s always new and rich with possibility and connection. The rule of Murder Village is that if one of your characters die, they are never to appear again, so part of the fun is creating new characters that work within the context of the Village.”
Geary explains that over the eight years his characters have died 60 times, so that’s 60 characters dead! “Some of those characters are audience and cast favourites. When you lose a character you’ve been lucky enough to enjoy and play several times, there’s a genuine sense of loss! That risk reward of forming a great character that has hopes, dreams and feels grounded at the whim of an audience vote is part of the joy of performing this show.”
Geary says that for the audience there’s a heap to enjoy. “First and foremost a genre and time period; they are all very familiar with 1950’s English murder mysteries. Secondly, they love the chance to vote upon the outcome of the show. They choose the murderer, the victim, the weapon, and a telltale clue via a QR webform before the show. The improvisers find out about 10 seconds before we walk on stage who will be the victim and who will be the killer and all the other information. So, although we know our characters for the night, the context of the story is 100% improvised before the audience. Our detective each night is with the audience the entire time, so they don’t know the results of the vote. Our storytelling expertise is under pressure every night to tell a story defined by audience choices in a way that’s engaging and coherent. A challenging task that keeps both of us, and the audience coming back for more.”
There is no doubt that audiences continue to love whodunnits. One explanation, for Geary at least, is that the genre is so rich with tropes and history, that to most it feels like an old comfortable jumper.
” Most people know Agatha Christie novels and stories, which are ever green and constantly reinvented. There always seems to be new fuel for that fire too, new series that keep the genre fresh and keep offering us new ideas and tropes, like Richard Osmans’ Thursday murder series and the Knives Out series. It’s an evergreen playfield, if you manage to offer the audience genuine mysteries that they feel like they have a stake in solving.
Because our audience votes for the outcome, they know who they have put forward, but are unaware of the consensus of the rest of the audience, so our audience (by design) are intrigued and engaged in the outcome. To do a show for 10 years that keeps the audiences coming back, because the show feels rich and engaging, is something we are all very proud of.”
Jason Geary has been a familiar face on a screens and around our festivals for many decades. But what continues to attract him to Murder Village? Well, he says, he loves the combined storytelling.
“Not one of us is in control of the story in a show, but between the six performers every night (out of a rotating ensemble of 20 or so) we must work and weave a satisfying narrative from nothing within half an hour leading to a justifiable murder. That is a challenge and a delight every show.
The draw card here is the professional nature in which David, our showrunner and director, keeps the ensemble. This ensemble is a joy to work with and no one is coasting here, each person is genuinely interested in being present, playful and curious and they bring interesting characters to the stage that require real nuance to tell collective stories with. As an improviser, the draw is working with people who are going to push you to new heights every time you step on stage. This ensemble offers that.”
He also acknowledges the importance of the audience in the whole mix, saying that in a Murder Mystery the audience’s involvement is essential.
“Once they’ve voted on the essentials of the evening’s story, the audience can sit back and watch if the choices they made were the same as the rest of the audiences. Once those initial decisions are made, we let our audience off the hook and don’t call them up on stage or anything like that. It’s not interactive in that way. They can sit back and enjoy the mystery unfold.
During the show, you can really feel the audience get involved and the ripples of each new revelation, there’s nothing better than a resounding audience gasp at a story beat we are collectively finding in the moment.”
Considering himself a veteran of the MICF, Geary has been performing there since 1996. 30 years! He says the festival has changed and grown over that period, but the vibe in Melbourne is always the same, alive.
“Melbourne loves its festivals, and audiences love to show up for comedy. It’s a great vibe and let’s face it, a city celebrating laughter for three weeks is doing something right.”
What does comedy mean and look like for Geary? Ah, he says. a loaded question here.
” I could rant on what I think is and isn’t Comedy here, but I won’t. It’s not up to me. I do comedy that I think is funny and relatable, others do the same and it might leave me cold. It’s subjective.
My personal preferences aside, I think good comedy is comedy that has you a) entering the venue with nervous anticipation and b) leaving the venue after the show feeling warm, with a big smile on your face.
The measure that gets you from point a to point b may be wildly different for different people, but I think that’s a good gauge for comedy in general. Your journey with the show makes you feel great for that shared experience when you leave.”
Immerse yourself in the cozy world of a 1950s Agatha Christie-style novel as Melbourne’s funniest improvisers craft eccentric characters and perplexing mysteries from your suggestions. Any of the village’s suspicious denizens could be dispatched at any moment, and any of them could be the murderer! It’s your secret ballot votes that determine who lives, who dies, and who will be unmasked as the culprit.
Says Geary, “Come see top class improvisers having a blast with a story that’s genuinely changed from night to night.
There’s always a back-handed compliment that sceptical audience members give us, which is “That was SO GOOD it couldn’t have possibly been improvised. We had to have planned out the whole thing.”
To which our answer is ALWAYS the same, “Thank you, but if you don’t believe us, come back again, you’ll see a completely different story performed to the same high standard.”
We are lucky enough to have built an audience who knows this and are keen to return to Murder Village every time we tour. If you haven’t seen us, come, if you have, come back and experience an entirely new murder mystery every show. ”
March 26 – April 19
www.improvisedwhodunnit.com/upcoming-shows and www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/murder-village-an-improvised-whodunnit
