Refer China: Murder, Music & Mystery ： 'Women Who Kill' Debuts This Weekend

Tales of intrigue and blurred reality

By Ned Kelly

Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Trenton Schneiders has a background in Theatre Performance from the University of Evansville, and has worked as an actor in the US, Mongolia, and—since 2018—China.

Ksenia 'Susan' Geddes, from Minsk, Belarus, graduated from the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts. Initially in China on a three-month tour, she ended up staying—proving that nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.

We caught up with the artistic duo to hear about their revamped show Women Who Kill, which debuts this weekend at The Pearl.

When did you first conceive of the Women Who Kill show?

TS: It was Susan's idea actually—she came to me after we debuted The New Romantics in 2023 and proposed two different show ideas. After discussing both, I sort of encouraged us to pursue this show's path.

Writing the script was a slow, six-month process where we talked about each scene, wrote a draft, read the draft, then made changes. Over and over again.

For those that don't know, what is the premise of the show?

TS: Detective Lionel Howard made a name for himself solving murders. But when Nancy, a criminal science intern, arrives to study under him, she discovers that his methods might rely too much on madness.

She decides to reopen these cases and invites the audience to join her on her clue-finding mission.

What can people expect?

TS: Imagine a musical cabaret mixed with an interactive escape room.

Our cast of characters tell three stories of murder, but it's up to Nancy, a new criminal science intern, and the audience to sift fact from fiction and determine who is truly guilty or innocent.

You'll discover that the facts aren't always what they seem, and get to vote to change the fates of three women.

How does the immersive side of the show work?

TS: It's not quite as immersive as previous Pearl collaborations like Pirates of the Pearl or Moulin Dream. For the show, you can sit the entire time.

But during the intermissions, we encourage audience members to explore the Pearl to find all 10 clues hidden through the space.

These are story elements that are not seen on stage and could totally change a person's perspective on each of the three cases.

At the end of the show, we hope the audience will weigh the facts on stage and the clues hidden in the space as they vote on the fates of the three women!

Tell us about the music...

TS: When we debuted the show in 2023, it used songs from other artists like Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and musicals like Grease and Chicago.

But this time, we've teamed up with composer Sasha Zaharik to write completely original music!

The process took about six months from first conception to completed score. So it's been a long time coming, and we can't wait for people to see the fully realized vision of the show.

Sasha wrote the majority of the songs, and Mamoto Music wrote a few, as well as produced and mastered some of the tracks, while Susan and I wrote all the lyrics.

SG: Sasha wrote the majority of the songs, but we also wrote a couple of the tracks with Mamoto Music.

It is an intricate collaboration. We wrote all the lyrics and music directed from Shanghai, Sasha wrote nine songs from Belarus, and we worked with Mamoto Music to write two more. Mamoto Music did the final master.

TS: Sasha is a pop music composer who has written songs for big stars in Eastern Europe, so I am happy to say they're all hits—no skips!

We stuck to the styles of the references in each character while completely rewriting the lyrics to match the world of the characters and the important clues we wanted to leave behind.

We hear you are heading to Edinburgh...

TS: Yes, we are taking the show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. It's the world's largest theatre festival, and as you can imagine it's quite expensive to take a team as big as ours.

Thankfully, The Pearl is contributing 60% of ticket sales to helping us!

We are still crowdfunding to cover the costs of flights and accommodation, so if anyone wishes to support us feel free to add me on WeChat through my ID: officertrendy.