Catch Cariad Lloyd and Joseph Morpurgo tomorrow night

With its sleazy, neon-porn decor, the speakeasy-style back room of the Wenlock & Essex bar in London, a former strip joint, usually hosts DJ nights. But this Saturday, in the space dubbed Satan’s Circus, there’s murder on the dancefloor.Mixing two phenomena for which the British public have traditionally shown wildly differing levels of enthusiasm– the whodunnit and improv comedy – Criminal is a new night in which five comedians improvise the investigation of a horrific crime, inventing dubious alibis and plausible modus operandi for what’s essentially a macabre, live version of Would I Lie to You?Hosted by Edinburgh comedy award nominee Liam Williams, the opening night has the premise that wealthy chewing gum magnate Lord Glen Flodbury has been found brutally slain. Appearing as the suspects will be Cariad Lloyd, her longterm partner in “two-prov” Paul Foxcroft, and Joseph Morpurgo who, along with Lloyd, is currently touring the show Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel. Completing the lineup are David Reed of sketch group the Penny Dreadfuls, as the detective charged with identifying the murderer, and any audience members called on by Williams to venture their relationship to the victim and suggest plot details.“Crime fiction takes itself very seriously and things like The Naked Gun are wonderful because you’ve got straight actors in incredibly strange scenarios,” he says. “We hope this is going to be a ripe genre for pastiche.”The whodunnit format could be just the thing to draw in audiences who might otherwise be reluctant to investigate the UK’s burgeoning improv scene.Criminal is at the Wenlock and Essex in London on 17 January 2015, then monthlyRead the full article here - http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/15/criminal-wenlock-and-essex-liam-williams-cariad-lloyd-improv-murder-mystery