Adelaide-based independent theatre company Tenuous Link Productions brings its passion for improv to the Adelaide Fringe in the criminally chaotic Dropped in It: Crime Scene Improvisation. 

Featuring a small but talented cast, Dropped in It relies on the audience to create the location, motive and murder weapon at the centre of the night’s events and this means that no two shows are the same. It also means (for better or worse) that the cast have absolutely no idea what they will do or say until they are on stage (or sometimes even after as witnessed at the 10 March performance). Each night the cast are joined mid-performance by a special guest star who must assume the role of detective to interrogate suspects, hunt for clues and hopefully solve a crime they know nothing about. 

As the show began on the night in question, audiences were introduced to the quick-thinking Claire Bottrall, Paul Gordon, Kendra Cowan and Marshall Cowan – the four cast members tasked with bringing our vision to life. Each assumed multiple roles as they scrambled to create a crime scene and list of suspects worthy of CSI and while they occasionally stumbled over their words and forgot character names (an occupational hazard in the unpredictable world of improv) the four were clearly enjoying themselves on stage. 

 In her role as the murder victim’s corpse, Bottrall had the unenviable task of trying to keep a straight face while her co-stars rambled around her. Her willingness to lie on the small stage with eyes closed for any amount of time is commendable given the chaos that unfolded. Gordon delivered a hilarious performance as a trainee Subway sandwich artist and eager young police officer, while Kendra Cowan entertained as an overly passionate empath, wife and French gallery owner. Marshall Cowen rounded out the team, delivering a passionate and at times hilarious performance as a loving husband, a cheating husband and a slightly disturbed milkman.

The evening’s special guest star, comedian Jeromaia Detto (whose show When I Grow Up is playing until 16 March) barely had time to wave to the audience before he was sent away from the venue, only to return 20 minutes later as the hapless, often inattentive (and, for some unknown reason, sopping wet) American, Detective Carter. Detto leapt head first into the chaos of the evening and while his character’s hilarious conclusions about the case were often wrong, he deserved top scores for imagination.

There were moments when the cast seemed to lose momentum as they struggled to tie the evening’s multiple locations into the overall story and this made the show feel long-winded at times. Despite this, there were plenty of laughs to be had