Writer: Paul Pörtner
Director: Sally Hughes
The key to any good whodunnit, be it on the page, on screen or on stage, is to allow those consuming the story to try and piece the clues together, to become armchair detectives, trying to work out the killer before the real detectives do.
Shear Madness takes that concept and runs with it, allowing the theatre audience not just to be silent Dr Watsons to the onstage Holmes, but active participants. Paul Pörtner’s original 1963 German-language play Scherenschnitt oder Der Mörder sind Sie, designed as an exercise in audience interaction, was later revised into English, where it ran as a semi-improvised comedy play in Boston from 1980 to 2020, making it the longest-running non-musical play in American theatre.
The Mill at Sonning’s production relocates the action to the theatre’s Berkshire locale. Shear Madness is a hair salon in Henley-on-Thames, run by stereotypically camp Tony Whitcomb (Daniel Cane) and fellow stylist, Rosaleen Burton’s Barbara McMarley. Whitcomb, who lives above the shop, is involved in a long-running dispute with the woman in the flat above, a retired classical pianist who, offstage, becomes the murder mystery’s victim. Both stylists become suspects, as do the salon’s clients, played by Natalie Ogle and Jonathan Markwood. Also present, in plain clothes, are Paul O’Neill’s detective Nick O’Brien and a bumbling constable sidekick, Mike (Gwythian Evans).
The play initially runs as a standard drama, with characters interacting as in a standard play. Compared with many a theatrical murder mystery, the dialogue feels forced and less naturalistic than a typical Agatha Christie. Elements that might turn out to be important clues are signalled to varying degrees, while the show’s attempts at humour feel flat.
The over-the-top deliveries and the dwelling on props and behaviours that might prove pertinent remind one of the 1990s ITV attempt to turn Cluedo into a TV series (older viewers may also remember the similar 1970s series Whodunnit, or a more recent incarnation, 2017’s BBC daytime series Armchair Detectives). Each of those series involved a panel of amateurs questioning actors in character in an attempt to find the truth – and that is the fundamental basis for the majority of Shear Madness’s running time.
With Evans acting as both detective and moderator, the audience is encouraged to point out inconsistencies in witness statements, ask questions of the four suspects, and generally work out what has been going on. It is this audience work that makes Shear Madness an exercise in guided improvisation, expecting the cast to react to anything thrown at them.
It is this reliance on the audience that proves to be both the show’s saving grace and a yoke around its neck. Every so often, one audience member proves to be an excellent comic foil for O’Neill’s detective, leaning into the show’s absurdity and humour. But once the floor is opened up to allcomers, there is always the risk that someone in the stalls thinks the show is actually about them. At times, O’Neill is reduced to the role of the teacher in an unruly classroom, vainly encouraging participants to raise their hands instead of constantly shouting out.
For those who want to participate in such a way, the opportunity to become an active part of a murder investigation gives them everything they’ve ever wanted. It is also possible to just sit back and watch the characters adapt their story as the questions uncover new elements and contradictory evidence.
As the end of the second act approaches, a vote determines which of the four possible murderers becomes the audience’s chief suspect. It is the result of this vote that determines who is unmasked as the killer, thus offering a different ending to each performance. For lovers of true murder mysteries, though, this ends up proving to be ever so slightly hollow. If anybody could have performed the deadly deed, then the craft of the murder plot feels cheapened.
Still, its improvisational nature makes Shear Madness a very different proposition to many of the Mill at Sonning’s recent productions. It is refreshing to see the venue attempt something new after a series of Cooney farces that have not always delivered the comedy promised. And if this approach to murder mysteries leaves one yearning for a sharply written puzzle instead of a branching narrative where anyone could have done it – well, there’s always the Mill at Sonning’s next production, The Mirror Crack’d, to look forward to.
Runs until 15 August 2026
