In the perfectly air-conditioned air of Studio Underground below the State Theatre Centre, we take our seats. The stage is set, with six benches forming a school bus. The cast are a Breakfast Club-esque group of misfit uni students: the teacher’s pet, the sporty kid, the popular students, the dropout and the outcast. Miss Frizzle, wearing her iconic electric blue dress covered in stars and planets, shouts ‘Seatbelts Everyone!’ But the Forensics 101 field trip grinds to a halt when one of the students is MURDERED! And everyone on the bus is a suspect.

The show’s premise is brilliant: A fast-paced mystery in one location. We only see the inside of the bus, so the script, blocking, lighting and cast help to make the plot engaging. I loved the creativity of the sets and props, including a fake body and a gnarly autopsy station.

Miss Frizzle and the over-achieving student Jamie were my favourite performers of the night. Miss Frizzle was full of bubbly and VERY MENACING enthusiasm, (considering that she’s solving a murder case) and Jamie had some of the funniest lines and line deliveries. Another standout was Sam the sports student, who put so much effort into their goofball physical acting.

My highlight of the night was the actors’ delivery. The dialogue was incredibly fast-paced and complex, with multiple moments where the cast had to interrupt or yell over each other. It’s a hard task to make a script like this sound natural, but the actors did an amazing job and I was sold on every performance! The play was full of fourth wall breaks and even a little audience interaction, especially at the end of the show as the murderer is revealed. Allegedly, the audience can guess a different murderer every night. All the more reason to go back!

The Lavender Collective theatre troop have put together a fabulous mystery show full of intrigue and laugh-out-loud comedy. It’s so much more than a normal field trip!