Murder At The Bowlo – Sydney Fringe 2023

Following a successful debut season at the Brisbane Anywhere Festival in 2022, the cast of Murder At The Bowlo (which is set of course, in a bowls club), winners of the ‘Sydney Fringe Ready’ award intrepidly went where all Qlder’s have gone before… Sydney! But, like most Qlder’s, we also came back - grateful for the experience, and happy to be back in our maroon heartland.

Murder At The Bowlo is an immersive and interactive show (yes, we know, some people’s actual nightmare) set in 1980s Queensland - 1987 to be precise, and the excitement for Expo 88’ is palpable. Audience members enter the venue with tickets to the show at their local bowlo, only to be told that they are walking in, not to see a murder mystery show, but joining in on a fundraiser for the local branch of the Qld Rural Party.

The audience mingles with the cast of eight Improv Qld improvisers, who have established characters - Graham the short-donning koala-culling party leader and Jazz his chief of staff (Madonna try-hard vibes), Damo the cheesy property developer set on progress and his long-suffering wife Leica, Siobhan the winner of Qld’s smallest business six years in a row and her dodgy brother Coen, Bruce the local construction magnate (picture Barnaby Joyce), and of course Acting Sargent Richard Head the copper who helps the audience to investigate the *gasp* murder.

That’s right, over the course of the fundraiser there is indeed a murder. The audience take on role of the detective to determine who in fact was the murderer and their Motive (why) Means (how) and Opportunity (when). The first person to successfully report back to Sargent Head wins themselves a meat tray. Well attended in part by the patrons of our fantastic venue, The Petersham Bowling Club –many attendees had little idea about the show they were walking into mixed in with some die-hard sleuths with a mission in mind.

Despite winning the award to perform at the Sydney Fringe Festival (read: we are obviously awesome), there was in fact some trepidation about bringing our highly Queensland-centric show over the southern border. Maybe they just wouldn’t, y’know… get it? But did they ever. Turns out - there’s nothing more that a New South Welshman loves than a joke about a backwards Queenslander. And we had them in spades. It helped that it was also the weekend of the Footy Finals (NRL, of course we don’t watch that VFL garbage), and change to daylight savings (not in Qld though, we don’t succumb to those communist plots to confuse our cows!).

So even though shows that are ‘immersive’ and ‘interactive’ can sound scary for an audience, the resounding feedback from our Sydney-sider attendees was that they had an absolute ball. The characters, venue, and partially improvised nature of the show makes for a hilarious and engaging experience whether you’re invested in solving the murder or not. Look, I am writing this as someone who was also in the show so I might sound biased but, in all honesty, the cast was incredibly humbled by the audience responses – many taking the time to speak to us after the show and tell us how ‘phenomenal’, ‘fantastic’, and ‘awesome’ we were. Which, for a performer there is no greater reward (well there could be money but let’s be honest there is none in the Arts), so the praise was savoured, and our bags were packed with affection as the eight of us trudged back to our little town Brisbane.

Our limited run of two shows over the weekend had one sell out, and a nomination in the Sydney Fringe Awards for “Best Immersive & Interactive” show. Improv QLD is so proud of the talent in our company and this satirical slice of 1980s Queensland. You beauty!

Written by Jaz Robertson.

Murder At The Bowlo for Sydney Fringe in 2023 was Directed by Luke Rimmelzwaan.

The fabulous cast was: Leica Baker, Siobhan Finniss, Coen Gilbert, Adam O’Sullivan, Jaz Robertson, Wade Robinson, Alistair Tomkins, and Daniel Johnston.