United Kingdom Guildford Shakespeare Company’s A Brew to a Kill: Hogs Back Brewery, Tongham, Surrey, 28.10.2026. (BF) *****
A laugh-out-loud funny, immersive, audience-participation murder mystery staged in a real working brewery by the ever-resourceful Guildford Shakespeare Company (GSC). Forget your Traitors, your Silent Witness: here you do the detective work yourself. The Company has taken over the entire Hogs Back Brewery in the countryside near Guildford, which allows the audience to interrogate suspects, hunt for clues and make their own deductions in among the different parts of the brewery, moving from Hop Hanger, to shop, to Brew House and so on. It is a slick operation, efficiently and charmingly stewarded as the audience splits up into groups with different destinations, and a lot of fun.
The plot is classic Agatha Christie with Shakespearean overtones. It is set in the 1950s: a wealthy brewing family (surnamed Gloucester like Richard III – a clue?), provides inheritance issues; a local brewery competitor – will one buy out the other? provides commercial problems; a mysterious outsider who has insinuated himself into the situation for an unknown reason adds extra spice. Everyone seems to have a motive, everyone seems to have an alibi.
Jack Whitam is wonderfully shady as the upper-class bounder Richard Gloucester, with a Terry-Thomas smile and mannerisms while Robert Maskell provides great comic contrast as the cockney gangster Tommy Tyrell, charming but dangerous thanks to ‘Tommy’s Ticklers’ his unseen but hovering henchmen. As to the women, Emma Fenney plays the sympathetic and downtrodden Edwina Gloucester (but has the worm turned?) and Laura Smithers completes the cast as the glamourous, steely, Anne Prior, owner of the neighbouring brewery. All four actors address the audience, explaining and defending themselves and their position, and then each submits to interrogation separately, improvising in character when answering the audience’s questions.
The title of the show is of course a pun on the title of a James Bond film, ‘A View to a Kill’, which Ian Fleming in turn lifted from the 18th century foxhunting song ‘D’ye ken John Peel’. This, combined with the pedigree of the theatre company, should prepare us for the many excruciating Shakespearean-flavoured puns to follow. These are largely beer-based, such as the valedictory ‘ale’s well that end’s well’ with others simply zany, such as my favourite ‘now is the winter of our discount tents’, advert in the stage prop newspaper.
This is GSC’s third immersive mystery, following previous years’ Boeing, Boeing, Gone!, staged aboard a real 747, and The Housetrap, set at West Horsley Place, the manor house used in BBC’s Ghosts – note the pattern of painful puns. With any luck there will be another one next year too. Like its predecessors, A Brew to a Kill was devised by the Company and written by Eli Murton. It is directed by GSC co-founder Matt Pinches and produced by the other co-founder, Sarah Gobran. The production features excellent period and character costume design by Anett Black and sound design by Matt Eaton, while the clever stage management and production is by Hannah Walker.
In 2026, GSC celebrates its 20th successful year, and its 20-year commitment to create exceptional theatre in extraordinary places. It sees its mandate as to challenge perceptions that the theatre is elitist, to encourage a new way to experience theatre-going and arts engagement, and to break down the boundaries that preclude participation, encouraging inclusivity and accessibility for everyone. Sarah and Matt say ‘Our site-responsive approach to productions places the audience right at the heart of the action, immersing them in the world of the play. Using churches, castles, galleries, museums, quarries, lakes, and even a real Boeing 747, we encourage audiences to interact with their shared space and heritage, engaging with the stories as more than just something to watch’.
The production is at Hogs Back Brewery until 15 November 2026.
Barbara Ford
Featured Image: [l-r] The suspects: Robert Maskell, Jack Whitam, Laura Smithers, Emma Fenney © Front of House Photography
Cast:
Richard Gloucester – Jack Whitam
Edwina Gloucester – Emma Fenney
Tommy Tyrell – Robert Maskell
Anne Prior – Laura Smithers
Creatives:
Writer – Eli Murton
Director – Matt Pinches
Producer – Sarah Gobran
Costume designer – Anett Black
Sound designer – Matt Eaton
Evidence Room design and production – Beth Mann
GSC Company Stage & Production manager – Hannah Walker