Locomotive For Murder: The Improvised Whodunnit

Ahead of taking their show to the Edinburgh Fringe, Pinch Punch improv group’s Locomotive For Murder pulled up in Liverpool as part of the annual Liverpool Theatre Festival.

Performing on one of the wettest July night’s ever, in the very much open air space of St. Luke’s Bombed Out Church, Pinch Punch transported the audience back to a world of Agatha Christie for an hour of quick-witted, unexpected and surreal comedy, mixed in with solving a murder.

The basic premise of the show is four characters board a train, one of them is murdered and it is up to world-famous Detective Miss Marbles and the audience to solve the case. The cast have no idea what character they will be playing as the first 10 to 15 minutes of the show are spent with Miss Marbles talking to the audience and getting anecdotes which form each character’s narrative. The audience even decide on the destination of the train, and after being introduced to each character they decide who dies. But neither the audience, Miss Marbles or the entire cast are aware of who the culprit is. That is decided by chance. After the murder takes place, the three remaining characters draw an envelope, and inside is a card that says whether they are innocent or guilty. The remainder of the show is then spent with Miss Marbles and the audience trying to work out who committed the crime.

This is a brilliant and unique take on improv theatre, and throughout we felt like we were getting two experiences for the price of one; a fantastic comedy show and the fun of real-life Cluedo. Lottie Davies as Miss Marbles skillfully extracted audience stories and ideas in a comical and entertaining way. Within the opening minutes we had covered picky bits teas, Wrexham, and the difficulties of photographing The Pyramids.

These tales became our train passengers; Colonel Camping obsessed with photography who is only missing The Pyramids to complete his collection, Marg-a Rita a party planner who appeared to enjoy the party aspect more than the planning, Ryan Wrexham a Welsh football coach (named after Ryan Reynolds) and Michael Midfielder a Wrexham footballer who was “kept stupid” by his coach Ryan Wrexham.

The cast took us through why each passenger was on the train, along with a little more back-story to their character, before the audience had to decide who dies. Essentially a popularity contest of who the audience has connected to the most. Once the murder takes place, the show switches to each remaining character giving their alibi. The deceased character is involved in all the scenes as each of the alibis is played out as a flashback.

Audience members continue to offer suggestions that are woven into the character’s alibi. Some of these suggestions grew increasingly absurd (our own suggestion was that Marg-a Rita was a competitive Connect 4 player who didn’t want the world to know their secret), but the cast handled them all with ease. The very clear friendship between the cast creates an easy chemsity on the stage, and they are not afraid to laugh and make fun of each other.

Despite the fact that this production was in extremely wet conditions, the actors did an amazing job. Their movements were definitely limited by the weather, and a scene of wrestling between Colonel Camping and Michael Midfielder had an additional layer of jeopardy as we were never entirely sure they’d land on their feet given the amount of water on the stage.

Unlike with The Mousetrap, as this show is unique everytime it is performed we can say that Marg-a Rita murdered Colonel Camping to ensure nobody would discover they were a competitive Connect 4 player, and that the audience correctly solved the case.

This is a truly inventive way to deliver an improv show, and one we hope to be able to watch again. The cast were adaptive, immersive, and gave a first-class performance in challenging conditions. A memorable evening for sure!

Pinch Punch will be performing Locomotive For Murder at the Gilded Balloon at Edinburgh Fringe from 2nd to 26th August. Tickets are available here.

Originally posted: July 28, 2023