Review: Murder, He Didn’t Write at Tobacco Factory Theatres
A fantasic evening of comedy gold with this Improv murder mystery celebrating Pride week
Improvised murder mystery company Degrees Of Error, is at Tobacco Factory Theatres this week. They’ve brought with them two performances of Murder, He Didn’t Write.
In celebration of Bristol Pride, the company has swapped their usual gender roles around with men playing women and women playing men.
Murder, He Didn’t Write, if you are new to the show like we were, is possibly one of the funniest pieces of theatre you can watch. The laughs didn’t let up at all thanks to the quick-witted talents of this very funny company.
The show is an Agatha Christie inspired story. The actors parody all of the kinds of characters you would expect to see in one of her stories.
Each one wears Cluedo-type colours of red, green, plum, yellow and blue.
A pianist provides the soundtrack throughout the show, matching the dynamics of the on-stage action. One of the highlights of the evening was a randomly included musical theatre song created entirely on the spot.
Of course, the actors don’t make it easy for each other, adding to the humour and forcing their fellow actors into tight spots. This means actors suddenly find themselves creating rhyming verse. In German.
After the murder is committed, flash backs then take place between the characters which are cleverly handled and offer up further clues and fresh motive.
Suggestions for the context of the play are thrown out by the audience at the start – as well as the murder weapon. This makes every show you watch completely different. No two shows will ever be the same.
A deer stalker hat is thrown into the audience with the person catching it becoming Jerkins, assisting the on-stage detective.
Jerkins decides from the audience ideas suggested what the final play will be about. The same member of the audience will later secretly select which cast member is the murderer and who is to be murdered.
At times, we were asked to use our ‘Fingers Of Suspicion’ to point at who we thought the murderer could be.
The actors do a sterling job of pulling together a storyline from the audience’s mischief.
On opening night at Tobacco Factory Theatres, we watched an entirely improvised murder mystery comedy set at a tiddlywinks competition – who knew there were so many words that rhyme with tiddlywinks?
The murder weapon was a wide-brimmed hat with a dinosaur pattern and the location, underneath the Cabot Tower on Brandon Hill.
Come the end, all the clues are neatly tied up in impressively creative ways, satisfying the audience.
The clever set vibes your typical manor murder house such as The Mousetrap and An Inspector Calls.
The show is two hours – including an interval – and it was surprising how fast the time went- a real testament to the strength of the show.
Murder, He Didn’t Write is on at Tobacco Factory Theatres until 09 July 2025
For more information or to book, visit: https://tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/murder-he-didnt-write/
For more information about Bristol Pride: https://bristolpride.co.uk/
For more information about Murder, She Didn’t Write: https://www.murdershedidntwrite.com
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