EDINBURGH 2026: Review: A QUEER LITTLE MURDER, Gilded Balloon Patter House
Savannah Hankinson’s one-hander merges standup with Agatha Christie
US comic Savannah Hankinson loves murder mysteries. So much so, in fact, that when she hears a bloodcurdling scream, her response is to shout with glee, “I’ve found the body!”.
Her one-woman show A Queer Little Murder sits somewhere between standup and horror storytelling. Hankinson is playing a character called “Well-meaning American Tryhard Lesbian” – Tryhard for short – who’s recounting a Rocky Horror-style tale where she holidays in a fictionalised version of Fire Island, finds herself stranded in a gothic mansion, and later stumbles into a locked room mystery.
The deceased is a lesbian grand dame aged “somewhere between Holland Taylor and Sarah Paulson”, who was about to host a starstudded queer party (attended by, among others, Hillary Clinton and Taylor Swift). Our suspects are “the least famous people there”, and include an Irish nun who’s “taking a sabbatical” from the Church to explore her sexuality, a Ukrainian model who thinks everyone who isn’t into her must be straight, and Tryhard’s ex, sporting a thick Valley Girl vocal fry.
All this gives Hankinson a showcase for her accent work and physical comedy skills, and there are some good observations about dynamics in queer women’s social circles. But the characters don’t develop enough beyond their archetypes for us to really care who committed the murder – the nun is sexually repressed, the model is haughty, and so on, and we leave it at that. There is room here for more intricate characterisation of these women and their relationships, especially when one of them has a personal connection to Tryhard.
Crowdwork is involved from the start – Hankinson takes audience recommendations for new murder mysteries, and has a flair for improvising with the crowd – and eventually, we have a chance to suggest potential suspects and motives. Unfortunately, this serves to further highlight the flatness of Hankinson’s characters. The audience votes for its favourite out of five potential endings, and on the day I attend, the chosen ending is far less revelatory than some of the crowdsourced suggestions.
Still, Hankinson is clearly an avid student of what makes the locked room mystery genre tick, and like Rian Johnson of Knives Out fame before her, sees an opportunity in applying the well-worn tropes of Agatha Christie and her ilk to modern life. Every character has a weapon on her person, a motive and an alibi, and the Chekhov’s Guns and red herrings are elegantly deployed. But this strong, appealing concept could benefit from a rewrite that pays as much attention to character as it does to plot.
A Queer Little Murder plays at Gilded Balloon Patter House until 31 August
Photo credit: Courtesy of the production
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