REVIEW: I Pie With My Little Lie, Something Beginning With Murder at Hen & Chickens Theatre August 2026

“Deeply satisfying, camp, and somehow cosy” ★★★★ ½

If you’ve ever wondered who that stranger is you sometimes see on the bus, or that guy who’s always sat in your local pub, then ‘I Pie With My Little Lie, Something Beginning With Murder’ is for you – because you’re about to find out who they could be.

This fantastic solo comedy welcomes us into a local greasy spoon by the river, where we unwrap the hidden inner lives of an unassuming regular crowd. With a brilliant Mark Lyminster in all the roles, we’re served a straightforward series of vignettes linked together by our weary server-host’s narration.

It’s not necessarily the recipe that makes this solo show so special; it’s the cooking and raw ingredients, like a nice steak. The 60-minute piece is simple – but utterly engaging from start to finish. They’re just really good stories, told really well.

We meet a transplantee with a shady family history, a vengeful quizzer, an uppity book club chair, a cottaging youth, all with one thing in common: they have in one way or another committed murder in the most domestic and unshowy of ways. The sheer ordinariness of these individuals bears the twinkly darkness of some of Roald Dahl’s best adult creations.

And like that literary master, Lyminster makes use of whimsical wordplay throughout, with an alliterative motif appearing like the Grim Reaper to signal death is on the way. It feels as though these irresistibly likeable killers inhabit a parallel world, reflecting back our own, where complicated evil makes us laugh and the everyday becomes macabre. It’s a madcap, random idea that never tries too hard.

Not only is this a quality script that I think would make an equally good read, but Lyminster is a second-to-none comedian, conjuring a cast of colourful characters with the warm and cheeky charm of Victoria Wood. His delivery is terrific, folding the audience into laughter with a single glance. And he’s clearly a fantastic actor, able to create such double-take realism in his caricatures that once or twice I thought our protagonist’s limp was a sign that he’d actually injured himself during the performance – then it would effortlessly disappear. With the donning of a hat or a pair of glasses, Lyminster dissolves into his characters around the café without the need for gimmicks; he barely changes but somehow changes completely; his deployment of the occasional accent is refined for maximum comedic effect. This is a confident and capable performer.

Overall, I Pie, is a rare gem: deeply satisfying, camp, and somehow cosy. Completely non-threatening despite all the death. Lyminster himself is gold and the script is stellar, a gift for any actor. The only critique is that the show could possibly be elevated even further with a co-writer, just to help polish off some of the lines. Lyminster’s delivery of even the weaker moments is excellent, so I reckon still greater heights could be achieved. But that doesn’t diminish the enjoyment of it as it is. If you’re hungry for a good laugh, find a performance of I Pie, or anything featuring Mark Lyminster for that matter. I know I will: because I could definitely do with another slice.

I Pie With My Little Lie, Something Beginning With Murder

Hen & Chickens Theatre, 15 & 16 August 2026

Written & Performed by Mark Lyminster

Directed by James Wren

Produced by The Hatchery

Reviewed by Alix Owen