Theatre review: Who Killed the Popstar? Constitution Bar, Leith

AS THE National Theatre of Scotland’s award-winning 5-Minute Theatre project has been reminding us lately, live theatre can happen anywhere, from a park or a clifftop to someone’s living-room; and it can happen with as much or as little professional involvement as those taking part can afford.

Who Killed the Popstar?

Constitution Bar, Leith

***

The current Leith Festival is full of pop-up theatre events with exactly that kind of spontaneous energy; and Leith Community Theatre’s live whodunnit, staged in the back room of the Constitution Bar every evening until Saturday, is a prime example of how to create high-octane theatrical fun with limited resources.

The basic joke of Chris and June Martin’s play – culled from their website of useful whodunnits for fundraisers – is that it’s set in a recording studio during the 1980s, an age of terrible hair and worse pop songs. Almost the entire script is cleverly constructed out of cheesy Eighties song lyrics.

Boy-band star Derek has been mauled to death by a tiger during a photo-shoot, and there are at least six suspects. There are also two intervals, during which the audience gets a chance to consider clues and guess at the culprits, with a prize for the eventual winner.

The whole show is a shade too long, at over two hours. But Brian Davison’s production contains plenty of jolly performances, full of sharp comic timing; and between scenes singer Kerri MacFarlane belts out some great karaoke classics, wearing fluorescent eyeshadow that somehow perfectly captures the spirit of a decade now gone, but absolutely not forgotten.