MURDER VILLAGE: AN IMPROVISED WHODUNNIT to Return to Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Now celebrating 10 years of wowing audiences across Australia, Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival after smash hit, sell-out runs in Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane.

The production runs March 26 through April 19, 2026. Performances are on Saturdays at 9:15 p.m. and Sundays at 8:15 p.m. Previews are March 26 and 27 at 9:15 p.m., with opening night at 9:15 p.m. on March 31.

With nearly 250 performances to its name, this ingenious Agatha Christie-style improvised production uses audience suggestions to craft the events, meaning no two shows are ever the same. Brought to life - in real time - by a rotating ensemble of 20 of Australia’s most skilled improvisers, the innovative format is a chance for lovers of crime fiction to immerse themselves in a world of English villages, red herrings, and delightfully suspicious characters.

In Murder Village, the local police inspector may be woefully incompetent but thankfully there is always an amateur sleuth on hand to sort the red herrings from the tell-tale clues. Eccentric characters collide with perplexing mysteries and any of the village’s suspicious denizens could be dispatched at any moment… and any of them could be the murderer. A secret ballot vote with each audience determines who lives, who dies, and who will be unmasked as the culprit.

“This show is not just about the laughs. Who will die, who did it, and how the sleuth will solve it are all exciting questions we improvise answers for,” said the show’s director David Massingham, who also features on stage as the hapless Detective Inspector Owen Gullet.

“Every show is a unique whodunnit puzzle box, inspired by the suggestions from the audience. The audience chooses the victim and killer, suggest the weapons and clues – they control the show, but as it is a blind ballot they also don’t know what was chosen, so they have the fun of trying to solve the crime. To have made it to our tenth year, having had the shows inspired by thousands of audience members across Australia, is extremely exciting.”

An award-winning festival favorite, Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit shows are expertly crafted by some of the country’s leading improvisers, including Jason Geary (Thank God You’re Here, The iSelect Guy), Lliam Amor (The Twelve, Escape From Pretoria), Rhys Auteri (Late Night with the Devil) and Amanda Buckley (The Project, The Newsreader).

Channeling the great masters of the whodunnit; Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Sherlock, Cleudo, Murder She Wrote, and Columbo,  Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit also skilfully adds to the growing, #HotTicket trend currently adorning our stages. But unlike the other productions we see at the moment, this game changing season comes to the stage completely unscripted, and ready to truly surprise.