My favourite thing about Pride Fest so far is no two shows I’ve seen have been even remotely alike and Savannah Hankinson’s “A Queer Little Murder” was no exception to this. In fact, it was super different from anything I’ve seen recently. The concept is a whodunnit Agatha Christie type murder mystery but everyone is gay. No seriously, Hankinson plays six different, lesbian characters and the whole thing is VERY gay. I loved it.
New York resident, Hankinson, has also trained in London and Russia. As such, her accent and character work were impressive and if she ever messed up switching between all of these, she was able to correct herself in the voice of the narrator and protagonist named ‘Try-Hard’. She mentioned at the start that she had just finalised and printed a new script that day, and I guess that’s Fringe* baby! This was a very meta, intellectual exercise which was a little bit more like going to a script reading crossed with a one woman show. However, there were parts that came more naturally when Hankinson really got into the flow, and these were super fun.
There were some very funny lines and lots of queer references which made for an enjoyable Tuesday night outing. I usually go into shows without reading much into them, or the performers, so I’ve only just now looked into Hankinson’s bio. She has taken this show to a very impressive list of Fringe festivals including in Hollywood, San Diego and soon she is going to Edinburgh! I see that it has sometimes been a full length play and sometimes the plot has been different, I wonder how often it changes? It would be cool to see Hankinson go script free to really connect with the audience and utilise the space more. Maybe in future shows she will.
My main gripe, as a lawyer, is that the murder was more like manslaughter and the evidence is not assessed very carefully. The whole thing wraps up quite quickly, and I wanted more depth and less background…
The set and lighting were fairly simple, but effective for telling the story as was Hankinson’s costume as ‘Try-Hard’ a pandering softmasc lesbian. There was quite a small crowd on Tuesday night at Qtopia, but everyone was gripped and willing to participate. It was marked as audience participation, so I was mentally prepared for this but honestly there could have been more!
Overall, Hankinson was a wonderful performer and I really liked the concept. A must see for anyone who loves crime shows and/or is gay.
*/Fringe adjacent festivals like Pride Fest
To book tickets to A Queer Little Murder, please visit https://tickets.qtopiasydney.com.au/Events/A-Queer-Little-Murder.
