No, it’s not Miss Scarlett in the ballroom with the lead pipe, but it’s not far off!
Who Did It? An Improvised Murder Mystery has been making the rounds in DC for years, winning the 2023 District Fringe Festival and headlining mystery night at the Library of Congress the same year. (How have none of you told me there was a mystery night at the Library of Congress?!)
While the premise stays the same — a pair of detectives investigate a murder by interviewing a rotating cast of suspects — everything else changes from night to night.
Well, not everything. The show’s creator and lead performer, Erick Acuña, seems to be a permanent fixture in the lineup of characters that include two detectives and six suspects who are performed by different actors throughout the show’s run.
The show begins with a host — MJ Welch the night I attended — who asks for an audience volunteer who would like the be the murder victim. Dear reader, a suprising number of people volunteered to be killed! Once the victim was chosen — a friendly data science engineer by the name of Kristan Markey — the host then asked audience members to dig into our bags for three items that could be used as clues in investigating poor Kristan’s untimely demise.
And this is when I discovered that DC residents carry some really weird stuff around with them.
Of the plethora of audience offerings, Welch selected three clues: A chicken nugget key chain, a box of strawberry Jell-O, and a strap-on bicycle light (oh, the strap-on jokes that ensued!). These clues were then placed around Markey’s body. Welch asked Markey some questions about himself, and after Markey shared that he was a bike enthusiast who enjoyed riding on the Capital Crescent Trail, that became our crime scene.
Volunteers be warned: if you are chosen as the murder victim, you must play dead for the entire first scene of the show. Markey proved to be an excellent corpse, choosing a standard face-down splay for his death position. If his career in data science doesn’t work out, I see a role as an extra on Law and Order in Markey’s future. With the murder victim in place and the clues assembled, the show began.
The night I attended, Acuña played the first detective while Kristina Martinez played his partner. Martinez was, for me, the comedic highlight of the show, leaning into the hardboiled detective trope with a frequent Jerry Seinfeld-esque smirk that let us know that she knew each joke was ridiculous.
As her partner, Acuña let his senses do the work for him, by which I mean he liked to lick and sniff the clues. Acuña committed to the bit in increasingly ridiculous ways as the show ramped up, licking everything from the stage floor to a pen, and, golly, I hope he is up-to-date on his COVID and flu shots.
I won’t take you through the rest of the show, which was 50 minutes of comic hijinks played out to varying degrees of success by six supporting players who were clearly having a blast coming up with jokes on the spot. But if you appreciate comedy and improv, this is a great show to catch. Just be warned that the performance space at the University of the District of Columbia is hot and that unless you park in the garage and take the elevator to the Phoenix Theatre space, you will have to climb a lot of stairs.
But honestly, would it even be summer in DC without a hot, uncomfortable Fringe Festival? I think not.
Who Did It? An Improvised Murder Mystery
By Erick Acuña
Running Time: 50 minutes
Dates and Times:
- Friday, July 10, 7:00 pm
- Saturday, July 11, 10:00 pm (masks required)
- Wednesday, July 15, 10:15 pm
- Saturday, July 18, 6:30 pm
- Friday, July 24, 10:30 pm
- Saturday, July 25, 2:00 pm
Friday, July 10 cast:
Host: MJ Welch
Detectives: Kristina Martinez and Erick Acuña
Suspects: Kunal Duggal, Mikko Abarcar, Abby Haverty, Richie Khanh, Ashley Holmes, and MJ Welch
The cast of suspects will rotate throughout the run. Cast members for upcoming shows are:
Meera Kallupura, Darnell Eaton, Bethany Stokes, Rohan Narayanan, Stephanie Rae, Arie Rich, Clare Mulligan, Chizo Nwagwu, JP Snead, Ian Farley, Rose Buchbinder, John Carroll, Alex Wilkinson, Lori Pitts, Sam Jackson, Catherine Castillo, Anna Burke, Jack Barnes, Jordana Mishory, Carolyn Clendenin, and Lauren Gabel
Venue: Phoenix – UDC Mainstage Venue
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets
Genre: Comedy
Company based: Washington, DC
Website: www.erickacuna.com/who-did-it/
Performed by: Erick Acuña
The complete 2026 District Fringe Festival lineup is online here.
The 2026 District Fringe Festival calendar is online here.
