''Shear Madness'' is an

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

whodunit A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...

play, and one of the longest-running nonmusical plays in the world.STAGE REVIEW: Shear Madness - Consistently Different
''The Tech'' The Boston production ran from 1980 to 2020 at the Charles Playhouse Stage II.Shear Madness to Close after 40 years
''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', March 12, 2020. A second production began in 1987 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is currently running. Shear Madness is based on the German-language play ''Scherenschnitt'' which was written by Paul Pörtner (1925–1984) and first performed at the Theater Ulm in Ulm, Germany in 1963.

Plot

The play is set in a

unisex Unisex is an adjective indicating something is not sex-specific, i.e. is suitable for any type of sex. The term can also mean gender-blindness or gender neutrality. The term 'unisex' was coined in the 1960s and was used fairly informally. The co ...

hair salon in the city where it is played. The landlady, Isabel Czerny, who lives above the shop is

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

ed and the audience gets involved in the action by questioning the actors and attempting to solve the crime. The characters include a flamboyant

hairdresser A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be re ...

and their flirty yet ditzy assistant, along with a prim and proper uptight older lady, and an older man who is a "used antique dealer". Much of the dialogue is improvised by the actors, and the humor tends to revolve around topical references to current events. The ending of the play is different every night as audience members hear clues, question the characters, and then vote on who they think is guilty. Whoever the audience votes to be the murderer, that person improvises dialogue along with the rest of the cast to reveal themselves.

Current productions

United States

In August 1987, a production of Shear Madness opened at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's Theater Lab in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and continues as of 2025.

Poland

A production began in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, Poland in 1999. In 2006, productions of Shear Madness began at the Bagatela Theatre in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, Poland. In 2024, the Kraków celebrated 1,000 performances of the play at the theater.

France

A French adaptation by director Sébastien Azzopardi, written by Azzopardi and Sacha Danino, opened in Paris at the

Théâtre des Mathurins The théâtre des Mathurins (), also called Les Mathurins, is a Parisian theatre located at 36, rue des Mathurins, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was established in 1897. Directions * 1898–1901: Marguerite Deval * 1901–1908: Ju ...

in 2011 and has had over 3,500 performances.

Past productions

North America

''Shear Madness'' first opened in Lake George, New York in 1978. In January 1980, it opened Boston at the Charles Playhouse Stage II and initially was planned for an 8-week run before heading to New York. However, the show failed to re-coup so it continued on in Boston until it made back its initial investment, which it did in August 1980. It continued on for the next 40 years, closing for good on March 15, 2020 citing potential loses from the then emerging

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The Boston production was described as the longest running non-musical play in the United States and the second-longest-running non-musical play in the world, after

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

's ''

The Mousetrap ''The Mousetrap'' is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The play opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be temporarily discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemi ...

'' which has been performed in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

since 1952. However a few other non-musical plays have run for longer:

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...

's ''

The Bald Soprano ''La Cantatrice chauve '' – translated from French as ''The Bald Soprano'' or ''The Bald Prima Donna'' – is the first play written by Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco. Nicolas Bataille directed the premiere on 11 May 1950 at th ...

'' in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

since 1957 and

Israel Horovitz Israel Horovitz (March 31, 1939 – November 9, 2020) was an American playwright, director, actor and co-founder of the Gloucester Stage Company in 1979. He served as artistic director until 2006 and later served on the board, ex officio and ...

's '' Line'' in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

(1974–2018). A production opened in November 2015 at the New World Stages

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

theater in

running there until July 2016. It then reopened later that month at the Davenport Theater, running until April 2017. Productions also ran in Philadelphia and Chicago. A Spanish adaptation by director Rina Rajlevsky, written by Alberto Lomnitz and Ricardo Esquerra, opened in 2017 in Mexico City at the Fernando Soler Theatre.

Europe

A Catalan adaptation by director Pere Planella, written by Guillem-Jordi Graells, opened in 1987 in Barcelona. A Spanish translation by Nacho Artime premiered in April 1989 in Madrid at the Teatro Figaro. It was restaged there in the 1990s, 2000s, and twice in the 2010s. A Turkish adaptation by director Nedim Saban opened in Istanbul in 1998 and ran for over 500 performances. In 2003, Saban adapted the play for the second time, introducing SMS messages and online chat as means of audience interaction.

References

External sources

* {{official website, 1=http://www.shearmadness.com 1980 plays Detective, mystery and crime plays German plays