Bursting with charisma, mystery and the all-important laughter,'Crime Scene Improvisation' successfully landed an entertaining show. Stuffed into a sweltering shipping container, disguised in true festival fashion as a 'Theatre Box', this crack team of witty actors did well to hold the crowd's funny bone - despite the exotic climate.
With neatly nudged prompts from our hosts, the murder mystery that would inhabit the stage for the next hour was devised through audience participation. We had set up the essential ingredients; a victim, a place of death and a murder weapon. Let hilarity ensue.
A neat team of four, the assured group bounced off each other with teamwork to make the Avengers shiver. Superbly picking up cues and dropping red herrings in our murder mystery, there were no awkward refusals in sight, a well-worn risk with improv. Unfortunately the audience participation did sink at times, despite the cast's admirable efforts to keep it afloat. Similarly not every joke was successful, but the tight team redeemed themselves with their boundless energy and enthusiasm that was simply infectious.
Perhaps even more impressively, this crackpot team didn't resort to a single cheap dick joke. Now that is a triumph.
Improv can be a difficult one, as you don't know whether the next joke is going to be funny or not. But the unpredictability of improv is also why it's so great!