Gillian Anderson, Joanna Lumley, Lee Mack and Johnny Vegas are among the actors and comics stepping into the inspector's shoes for Park Theatre's Whodunnit [unrehearsed] 2.
The fundraising show at the Finsbury Park venue runs from February 9 to March 12 and sees each star take on the role for one night, script unseen, with their lines fed to them through an ear piece.
The audience won't know in advance who will appear.
Artistic director Jez Bond has co-authored the farcical murder mystery, which revolves around a stolen diamond, a luxury cruise, blackmail and lashings of poison. Whodunnit (Unrehearsed) 2 also features an inflatable parrot, the voices of Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson and a post-show Q&A with the star.
Clive Anderson, Tanya Moodie, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Gyles Brandreth, Michelle Collins, Adam Hills, Harry Hill, Ross Kemp, Stephen Mangan, David Mitchell, Clark Peters, and Meera Syal are also confirmed to play the sleuth although.
"The mystery will be who will walk through the door at your performance," says Bond, who added that proceeds would go towards "keeping Park Theatre open and accessible for all".
In 2019 a similar project saw Ronan Keating break into song, Gillian Anderson sporting a moustache, and Gyles Brandreth ad-libbing in Hungarian.
“We had such a great response to Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] in 2019 that we have brought it back with a whole new mystery and another astonishing slate of guest performers," said Bond. "As a theatre venue that receives no regular public subsidy, fundraisers like this are vital to our survival, and the number of high-profile people who have offered to give their time and put themselves in the nerve wracking position of acting a role they have never seen before is absolutely humbling. We're thrilled to be welcoming audiences through our doors and look forward to another great variety of shows for 2022.”
Whodunnit Unrehearsed runs February 9 to March 12 as part of a season that includes Clybourne Park (March 16 to April 23). Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning satire about race, real estate and prejudice in America was postponed by the pandemic. In the Park's studio theatre is Ghosts of The Titanic (March 9 to April 2 ) which investigates the fake news and conspiracy theories following the ship's sinking, and Another America (April 6-30) set after an election which threatens to topple democracy. No Never Once is a new American family drama about a young woman trying to find her father. It runs February 9 to April 30.
Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London.
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