{"id":357022,"date":"2024-07-15T21:39:13","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T01:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=357022"},"modified":"2024-07-15T21:39:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T01:39:13","slug":"2024-capital-fringe-review-who-did-it-an-improvised-murder-mystery-by-erick-acuna-productions-3-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2024\/07\/15\/2024-capital-fringe-review-who-did-it-an-improvised-murder-mystery-by-erick-acuna-productions-3-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Who Did It? An Improvised Murder Mystery’ by Erick Acu\u00f1a Productions (3 stars)"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>hen you go to an improv show, you\u2019re there to laugh, but you\u2019re also there to be surprised. Sure, funny plays can make you feel the rush of a perfectly timed joke. But only improvised comedy can jolt spontaneous, unplanned creation. It\u2019s playwriting on the fly.<\/p>\n

Who Did It? An Improvised Murder Mystery<\/em>, now playing DC\u2019s Capital Fringe Festival, vacillates between feeling like a funny play and feeling like a spontaneous creation. The jokes are solid and it\u2019s narratively satisfying, but the performance doesn\u2019t deliver many surprises the way the best improv shows do.<\/p>\n

\"\"The show follows a tight structure. First, a \u201ccrime scene specialist\u201d picks up three random objects from the audience. In my show, these were a bottle of sunscreen, a blue cocktail umbrella, and mint wax dental floss. Then, an actor dies onstage, so Erick Acu\u00f1a and a fellow comedian play detective. Each following scene presents investigations of two suspects played by other improvisers.<\/p>\n

Acu\u00f1a is a witty comic, leading each scene and keeping the pace flowing naturally. At my performance, the jokes leaned toward the broad \u2014 Gen Z and consultants feel like pretty obvious targets for ribbing \u2014 but they still elicited recognition and chuckling. Some gestural physical comedy from the suspects drew some even bigger laughs.<\/p>\n

What limits the show is the unmovable structure of scenes. I get it: limitations breed creativity, and formats help improvisers face the terror of a blank stage. But no matter what objects were chosen from the audience, the show would keep marching inexorably through each scene toward the reveal of the murderer. The best moment in the show came when Acu\u00f1a dropped his straight man persona<\/a> and launched into role-playing, forming a scene within the scene. It was a refreshing sharp left turn in an improv show that felt weirdly predetermined.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of improv show structures like the Harold<\/a> or the Armando<\/a> that use narrative but leave more room for associative storytelling. Perhaps Acu\u00f1a could expand the performance with those formats. Or maybe he could turn the show more into a funny play, providing a stronger characterization for his detective beyond his hints of a tragic backstory.<\/p>\n

Still, one lukewarm performance doesn\u2019t foreclose greatness for an improv show, particularly one with a rotating cast. Who Did It?<\/em> has led to ecstatic reviews <\/a>in the past, and I believe that with the right jokes and the right audience, it could deliver the laughs. Perhaps the show still has the capacity to surprise.<\/p>\n

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Running Time:<\/strong> 50 minutes
\nGenre:<\/strong> Comedy
\nDates and Times:<\/strong><\/p>\n