Murder on the Allotment
Cockpit Theatre
10th & 11th August 2026
17-year-old asylum seeker Karwan survived the Channel, but can he survive middle England? After being handed an allotment plot in the provinces, he finds himself trapped in a petty turf war with a bunch of “boring old age pensioners” who aren’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat.
As polite masks slip, age-old prejudices take root and war breaks out over who truly belongs.
Featuring eleven original and very catchy songs, and inspired by real-life stories from teenage asylum seekers, this funny and provocative musical exposes the absurdities of bigotry at work in the UK.
The cast of three: Seraphim Gumede as Karwan, Katherine Glasson as Virginia and Bret Jones as Hugh are all excellent and play off each other very well. The subject matter may not sound like a suitable subject for a musical but writer Elizabeth Wood has pulled off a major miracle by making this show such a feed good one whilst dealing with some uncomfortable home truths in a very empathetic way. The lyrics to the songs are all witty, endearing and some are very funny indeed.
This musical yearns to be expanded into a full-scale show (at present it only runs for an hour) but there is ample scope to make it a full blown two act show and could easily go on to be a major West End hit.
Sadly, the run at the Cockpit is short but I am sure this musical will return for a longer run at another theatre – it just has to!
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Mike Linane