Details
Eight years in the making - the four linked plays of Steve Hennessy s Lullabies of Broadmoor - A Broadmoor Quartet weave together the closely linked stories of five of Broadmoor s most notorious inmates of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with the stories of those they murdered. The sequence of plays form a rich, dark, Gothic tragicomedy about murder, love, madness, personal responsibility and redemption.
Lullabies of Broadmoor weaves the stories of three notorious London murders into a picture of life in the "Gentlemen s Block", a wing of Broadmoor reserved for murderers who regarded themselves as a cut above the average killer.
The Murder Club is set in 1922. Murder is in the air. The British Government is engaged in a genocidal war in Iraq using poison gas and other weapons of mass destruction and two notorious murderers are meeting in Broadmoor for the first time. Small time conman Ronald True has just murdered prostitute Olive Young in Finborough Road, just down the street from the theatre. Embittered out of work actor Richard Prince murdered matinee idol William Terriss at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre. Now the two men have been put in charge of an evening of entertainment at Broadmoor...
Wilderness, also based on a true story, describes a journey from the battlefields of the American Civil War to the cells of 19th century Broadmoor by way of one of the most famous murders in Victorian Lambeth. This is the story of William Chester Minor, one time surgeon in the American Union Army and a major contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary. A rich, dark, Gothic tragicomedy about war, murder, madness and redemption. Strong language and sexual content mean these plays are not suitable for children.
The Murder Club has been specially commissioned by the Finborough Theatre to tell some of the infamous history of the local area
Cast/Performers
Chris Courtenay,
Marc Danbury,
Natalie Hobday,
Andrew Michell,
Charlotte PykeCreatives/Company
Company:
Extremis Theate (in assocation with Theatre West and Concordance)
Author:
Steve HennessyDirector:
Caitriona McLaughlinDesign:
Ann StiddardLighting:
Tim BartlettSound:
Hoxa SoundCostume:
Penn O'GaraOther:
Ian Wilmot (photography)