★★★★★
You may not know who the killer is, but Cluedo knows exactly what it is. And crucially, unlike its colourful cast of villains, it doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
Based on the cult 1985 film written by Jonathan Lynn, itself inspired by the classic board game, this stage adaptation by Sandy Rustin leans hard into farce. It embraces chaos. It chases laughs. And in this slick Adelaide production, that gamble pays off.
The premise is simple. Six strangers. One mansion. A series of murders. Was it Mrs Peacock in the conservatory with the wrench? Professor Plum in the billiard room with the candlestick? Colonel Mustard in the study with the dagger? The joy isn’t in solving it. It’s reliving your childhood game time.
Director Luke Joslin understands the tone. This is not psychological drama. It’s melodrama pushed to absurdity. Doors slam. Rooms slide open and closed. Bodies drop. With no intermission the pace rarely lets up.
The cast is a genuine who’s who of Australian stage and screen. Rachael Beck as Mrs White is all icy control and Cruella de Vil energy, she slices through scenes with precision. Adam Murphy plays Colonel Mustard like Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy. Every line lands with blunt-force literalism. It becomes a running joke that never quite wears out.
Laurence Boxhall brings a different kind of physical comedy. His Reverend Green begins as a jittery, almost Jerry Lewis-style bumbler. Then the body work takes over. There are echoes of his time playing Gollum. Twitches. Collapses. A brilliant sequence involving corpses that feels lifted from Weekend at Bernie’s. It builds to one of the strongest comedic arcs of the night.
Grant Piro nearly steals the show. His rapid-fire recap late in the piece is a feat. He re-enacts the entire play at breakneck speed, threading together chaos into something almost coherent. His death scene, meanwhile, gleefully borrows from every classic Hollywood trope in the book. It’s too much, in most contexts, but not here.
There are strong turns across the ensemble. Olivia Deeble is a sultry Miss Scarlett; a character written before sex positivity. Genevieve Lemon sure knows how to gobble a shark fin soup as Mrs Peacock. Lib Campbell is a breakout as Yvette, a French maid who seems constitutionally unable to stand upright. The accent is outrageous.
Set and costume designer James Browne has created something genuinely clever. Rooms slide in and out like drawers in a board game. It feels like watching a diorama come to life. The movement is efficient. It keeps the story moving.
The show also benefits from moments of release. Dance sequences break up the pace. They arrive just as the tension threatens to plateau.
If there’s a limitation, it’s built into the material. Cluedo has always struggled with its mystery. The original film was famously messy, with multiple endings. This adaptation tidies things up. But only to a point. The final reveal lands, but it’s not the reason you’re here.
And that’s fine.
This production thrives on comedy, not deduction. It understands that adapting a board game will always feel slightly mechanical. The trick is to lean into it. Cluedo integrates the rules, the lore, the references as smoothly as possible.
With so many decades of adaptations, you could ask, “who hasn’t done this whodunnit?” Unlike half the characters by show’s end, though, this show still has more life in it yet.
Cluedo runs to 4 April at Her Majesty’s Theatre, 58 Grote Street Adelaide as part of a national tour. See dates below.
Tickets: https://cluedoplay.com.au/#tickets
Website: https://cluedoplay.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/cluedotheplay/
Photo credits: Jeff Busby
2026 Australian Tour Dates
Brisbane 7 January to 1 February, Playhouse Theatre, QPAC
Melbourne 7 February – 15 March, Comedy Theatre
Adelaide 21 March – 4 April, Her Majesty’s Theatre
Sydney 11 April – 8 May, Theatre Royal
