How To Solve a Problem Like Murder

How do you solve a problem like murder? With difficulty, it turns out. Particularly as it’s not just a question of whodunnit but who’s been done in.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign last summer, Uncorked Theatre has taken up residency on the top floor of gastro pub Paradise by Way of Kensal Green with an immersive production that’s part play, part murder mystery.

Before making your way upstairs into the ‘Paradise Bar and Hotel’, you’re given a mask and a pen and paper to scribble down any suspicious findings, as though you’re playing a real life version of Cluedo. In the main room, the hotel’s highly-strung owner is overseeing rehearsals for a cabaret show with a cast of equally highly-strung dancers - everyone’s a suspect.

The opening dance number is interrupted as the music cuts out, the lights fade to black, a gunshot echoes in the room and an eerie voice tells you to respect his rules: no talking and no taking your masks off (which is a shame because they’re horribly uncomfortable). But then again, comfort is not really what this production is about. After all, there’s a murderer in our midst. Following the gunshot, the play takes us back to the start of the day, before the crime. The action weaves in and out of four rooms, leaving you constantly on edge that you’re missing some vital clue that’s unfolding in another room.

The show feels a bit chaotic at times, but it’ll get your pulse racing way more than a rainy afternoon spent trying to work out what Professor Plum’s been up to in the billiard room. And with each suspect as shifty as the next, it’ll keep you guessing until the end. 

'How to Solve a Problem Like Murder' is back in September 2017. This review is from its 2016 run.