Title of Show: CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation Venue: Underbelly Bristo Square - Ermintrude Time: 3.10pm Dates: 5th – 28th August Photographer: Matt Crockett
Tell me about your 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show.
CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation is an improvised murder mystery with a twist.
No one knows who the killer is – not even the cast!
The audience creates a bizarre crime: the victim’s name, their profession and how they were killed. From there, we leap into a one-time only who-dunnit set in the aftermath and investigation: the audience get to grill suspects in a line up, asking any questions they want (and they really do) before ultimately pointing the finger at the killer in the climactic scene.
Did they think the unfaithful husband would be too obvious? Pick the harmless elderly gardener and we’ll have to pull out the heart wrenching dramatic confession that’ll make that make sense.
We’ve been playing at Underbelly’s Ermintrude for several years now and hyped to be back after a 2 year pause (for guesssable, global reasons.) During the rest of the year it’s a lecture hall so it’s absolutely perfect whether you want to sit back and relax or get really, deeply involved with the interrogation.
What are your expectations of this year’s Fringe?
Hoping for another sell-out run and continuing to be surprised by how creative and sharp eyed the audience can be. The most fun part of doing this show is having to expect the unexpected so bring us some very obscure professions and bizarre ways to commit crimes please!
Who inspires you?
Bear Pack (Carlo Ritchie and Steen Raskopoulos) always bring an incredible level of heart to very daft improv.
Showstoppers are consistently the slickest out there and very polished with getting the most out of the improvised medium.
And throughout the Fringe, every strange idiosyncratic show I wander into creates a grand monument to autotelic art.
If you busk with escapology, you are my hero.
Lastly, not a show but incredibly important, FringeofColour.co.uk creates a database to highlight and support shows and events taking place at the Edinburgh festivals where 50% or more of the performers or speakers on stage are Black people or People of Colour. They do a lot of amazing things you can get on board with to help improve the Fringe and yank it away from harmful exclusivity. The largest arts festival in the world should be for everyone.
What was it like first getting back on stage after the pandemic lockdown?
It was like experiencing mindfulness. We played a show at an outdoor festival and the audience, as well as ourselves, were palpably grateful to be there.
What we do is so objectively daft that it makes it extremely meaningful for a group of people to get together and do it. It’s 100% about enjoying our time with each other and I’ll never take the sound of live laughter for granted again.
Finally, ask and answer a question of your own.
What question would you ask if you were asked to answer your own question?
That’s a great question. I’d ask what question I would ask if I were asked to ask and answer a question about what question I would ask and answer if I were asked to ask and answer one.
That or I’d ask me if I wanted to get an iced coffee after the show.
Tickets: CSI: Crime Scene Improvisation
