CAST Theatre, Doncaster – Thursday 12th June 2025
Reviewed by Adam Craddock
5*****
Tonight my partner and I had the absolute delight to be invited to review Degrees of Error’s latest tour of Murder She Didn’t Write – the improvised murder mystery and spoiler alert, I have to say this is right up there with my absolute favourite live theatre experiences of my life. This show had me genuinley crying with laughter and struggling to breath and appealed perfectly to my own very British sense of humour.
The extremely talented cast of six experienced improv actors were absolutely hilarious, both individually and when working as a collective. Please bear in mind that what I am about to say about the actors may be entirely different on your night as the entire show is improvised.
Stephen Clements guided us through the evening as detective Iva Hunch (exceptional name) and was equally hilarious to watch both when actively engaging with the audience but also when he was just watching the drama unfold, seeing him crack up constantly had me in stitches and was one of my favourite parts of the show. Lizzy Skrzypiec was fantastic as Violet Violet, the chicken academic, or as otherwise referred to… the cock professor! She had exceptional physical comedy skills and her irrational fear of a left turn was hilarious! Peter Baker was superb as Barry Green, the closeted bar proprietor. He had a devious wit about him where he loved throwing his colleagues under the bus with a curveball or a challenge and this made the drama all the funnier. Caitlin Campbell was great as Clitilda Blue, wife of Barry and landlady of the pub. I particularly enjoyed her strong physical comedy skills with her martial arts being a strong highlight. Rachael Proctor-Lane was marvellous as Gloria Gold, 42 year old bride to be on her hen. Proctor-Lane had exceptional timing and did a very good job of bringing it down pace wise when the show started to run whilst not letting the ball drop. Douglas Walker was good as Simon Red, gardener stripper murdered at the end of act 1. I liked the use of flashbacks to see the different motives in his death and his quick wittedness was brilliant, though his stripping left a little to be desired. A special final shout has to go out to “Jerkins”, Iva Hunch’s assistant from the audience who picked the murderer and victim and also got to model a very nice hat.
The set for the show was great, a layered backdrop with multiples entrances that looked a lot more high budget than what I was expecting. You may have also noticed an interesting little tidbit in the character names… Barry GREEN, Simon RED, etc. etc. These were quite clearly based on cluedo characters and this was reflected in their wardrobe which perfectly leant into this vision. I liked the fact that this production seemed to be just as well suited to all spaces and scenarios big or small and this really leant itself to the improv feel. The comedy style was also absolutely perfect in my opinion and I would have absolutely no notes, I can’t recall the last time I laughed this hard.
In conclusion I could not recommend this production in any higher terms. These are truly masters of their craft and this to me is the dictionary definition of “must see”. Please please please see this production when you can on this tour, we are already looking at booking to see it again when we can for a brand new experience.