Review: CRIMINALLY UNTRUE: AN IMPROVISED TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY, VAULT Festival

"It was a swimming pool, but it was so much more than that"

Criminally Untrue: An Improvised True Crime Documentary has everything that you would expect from a true crime documentary, except for the fact that none of it is true.

There are interviews with witnesses, clips of CCTV footage, conspiracy theories (what if it was goblins?), and police interrogations. The crime is determined by the "Hat of Crimes" (*cue oohs and ahs*), a baseball cap with different types of crimes written on scraps of paper in it. In our case on Sunday night, the slip chosen was "food crime". Wondering what that means? So were we, but we were about to find out!

Jonathan Oldfield, Lorna Rose Treen, Steve Duffy, Orla Newmark, and Will Hughes star in the improvised comedy by PillowTalk Theatre, with Dru Cripps performing as the "improvising technician". Cripps operated the live detective board, digitally filling in sticky notes about suspects, locations, clues, and more. The show was a mix of different improvisational comedy styles, with one part being one actor at a time sitting in a chair and talking and getting tapped out by another, another consisting of scenes made up on the spot, and others based on audience interaction.

Just like any other improvisational show, the performers depended on the audience, taking suggestions and at times directly interacting. Before entering the venue, audience members are given the chance to write down objects on notecards, slipping them into a manila envelope before taking their seats in the crypt. Once the show begins, it is the audience that suggests crime scenes, with the performers taking their favourites and deciding on one. We ended up with an underground swimming pool! One audience member was even brought on stage to be a lawyer for the suspects, and the choice was perfect as the audience member was revealed to be a lawyer themselves!

Some of the highlights came from the most unexpected moments, either brought upon by audience members or the performers themselves. All of the performers are quick on their feet and have clearly worked together before, bringing a fantastic comedic chemistry to the stage with each new situation they faced.

Oldfield gave two performances that left me snorting with laughter, one as a ridiculously dramatic (and useless) detective and the other as a farmer questioning the sentience of chickens, stating that they are sentient "under the right conditions". As usual, I looked out for how the performers dealt with the train noises from Waterloo above - this time, there were great references to press conferences being held at Heathrow Airport and a coffee that leaves you hearing a "rumbling in your head". On a side note (but also related to improv), Cripps must also be given credit for quick thinking, coming up with the hilarious title of the documentary (which honestly deserved a moment to shine) - "Problem with the Pool(try)".

The show ends with a Q&A with the audience, in which the performers act as the police and the audience becomes the press. It felt funny being called a journalist as I sat there, writing notes, but I loved how the show was interactive until the end, giving the audience the chance to tie up any loose ends that they had been thinking about.

Ultimately, Criminally Untrue: An Improvised True Crime Documentary is a hilarious show that will leave you wanting more from PillowTalk Theatre. Oldfield and Treen have directed a fantastic cast of improvisers that will bring a little bit of "organised chaos" into your life, creating the crime story of the decade.

Criminally Untrue: An Improvised True Crime Documentary ran at the VAULT Festival on 18 and 19 March in the Crypt at The Vaults

Photo Credit: VAULT Festival

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