Criminal Minds

Is theatre the deadliest weapon of them all?

Interviews: Tamara Mathias

From a classic whodunnit to a musical murder mystery, crime is on the rise in Edinburgh.

While some of us spent lockdown brewing artisanal coffee and swearing off formal wear, several writers and performers were carefully plotting grotesque murders. But scratch beyond the veneer of suspense and you will find that creators had very different motives for using crime in their plays.

Take Closure, an intimate, three-person drama starring writer Faye Draper and director Maz Hedgehog, where audiences attend a disturbing dinner party from which not everyone might leave alive. The performance is designed to be an intense, unsettling, claustrophobic experience with dark humour and wicked twists.

“You think that the crime in this story is murder, but then you realise there is a painful theme of violence against women underpinning everything,” Hedgehog says.

Both Draper and Hedgehog (of Manchester-based theatre company Ink and Curtain) are survivors of sexual assault and delved into their own experiences to create a show that gives voice to “feminine rage”.

“This is a potent, slow-burning anger against systematic sexism, sexual violence and misogyny. It is rage at how women’s pain is trivialised and justice is denied,” explains Hedgehog. “I feel my job as director is to build and maintain tension, without exhausting the audience. There’s a pressure valve to the humour and getting the pacing right is very important.”

Also drawing on real-life experiences, Matt Wilkinson’s Psychodrama was inspired by sto- ries from a Whatsapp group of female actors. The play will transport mystery lovers to the dark underbelly of showbiz and hinges on the unreliable narration of a beleaguered actress in her 40s who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. It pays homage to Hitchcock’s Psycho and was scripted specifically to be performed as a monologue by Emily Bruni.

“This play is in part a love letter to actors and the particular demands we face,” she says. “How you look is subject to discussion, being vulnerable is part of the deal… Psychodrama borrows real stories from actors who love their jobs but land in horrifying, and sometimes hilarious situations because of them.”

Bruni serves up a whole cast of suspects, playing eight characters brought to life amid a soundscape by Gareth Fry (who worked on the Olympic Ceremony and Harry Potter and The Cursed Child), and lighting by Elliot Griggs (of Fleabag fame.)

“I’m breaking the fourth wall all the time. I don’t feel alone on stage as the audience becomes the other character I’m in conversation with.”

Yet not all killer shows rely on foreboding to serve their purpose. In Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder, the hunt for a killer is brought to life with music and lyrics. Writer-musician team Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones took up the challenge of combining two unlikely genres into a show where clues are hidden in bangers and every scene has its own song.

“Murder mysteries and musicals are so different: one demands intrigue and plot twists, the other pushes you to be emotional and reflective,” Brittain says. “If we’ve done our jobs right, the audience will be thoroughly entertained and end up really investing in the characters and their friendship.”

Like the play’s protagonists, a pair of amateur true crime podcasters, Jones says he’s always harbored a secret wish to crack an unsolved case. “Kathy and Stella are exactly like that. We don’t have an Agatha Christie cast of 30 people, but we’re aiming to be very ambitious with five absolutely amazing musical theatre performers and just me on the piano.”

SHOW Closure

VENUE: Pleasance Courtyard

TIME: 3:10pm – 4:10pm, 3–29 Aug, not 15

SHOW Psychodrama

VENUE: Traverse Theatre

TIME: times vary, 4–28 Aug, not 8, 15, 22

SHOW Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder

VENUE: ROUNDABOUT @ Summerhall

TIME: 9:50pm - 11pm, 3-28 Aug, not 4, 9, 16, 23

At Edinburgh Festival Fringe presented by The Danish Arts Foundation

ROCKY! by Fix&Foxy

 17.55 ❙ Aug 5 – 20 ❙ ZOO Southside - Main House

Fiercely entertaining award-winning political theatre based on the movie about the boxer.

WALKMAN by Don

Gnu

 12.15 ❙ Aug 14 – 28 ❙ ZOO Southside - Main House You will never cross the street in the same way again!

TUESDAY NIGHT SLEEPING CLUB by hello!earth

 21.00 ❙ Aug 9 – 26 (only Tuesday-Friday) ❙ ZOOTV

An immersive live streamed audio experience at your home. Prepare to enter the night like you never did before!

AN EVE AND AN ADAM by Granhøj Dans

 18.50 ❙ Aug 9 – 14 ❙ DANCEBASE www.danishedfringe.com

NB: Granhøj Dans presents works the whole month A rather naked duet.