Review: Scream Queer Murder at the King’s Head Theatre, London

Thursday 3rd August 2023 at the King’s Head Theatre, London

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reviewer: Charlotte Dawes

Written by Martin Lewton and directed by Andrew McKinnon, Scream Queer Murder is a comedy providing an intriguing view of the changes in identity and sexuality stereotypes in the 1950s and today, through the lens of an Agatha Christie style novel.

Mildred Cummins, the fictional equivalent of Agatha Christie, is writing her latest book. Accustomed to having a token role around chapter 7, we meet William and Patrick, played by Morgan Leigh Jones and Martin Lewton, two gay men inside Cummins’ head waiting to be written into her latest whodunit. They are surprised to learn this novel is taking a different approach where their roles will be more salient to the plot.  

As Cummins goes “off script”, we delve into the lived experiences of William and Patrick. Without any spoilers, a time jump provides perspective to the changed but alike stereotyping faced by gay characters existing now.

They say stereotypes evolve like language. This concept is cleverly approached in the contrasting use of Polari, a code language gay men used to survive in the 20^th Century, and Kylie Minogue’s pride anthem “Padam Padam”, the latter almost instantly becoming part of gay lexicon.

The plot does get somewhat lost and confused towards the second half with audience attention waning where new narratives are left unexplained. Nevertheless, both Morgan Leigh Jones and Martin Lewton prove themselves to be compelling character actors. 

Scream Queer Murder is playing at the King’s Head Theatre until August 12th 2023 – more information and tickets can be found here.