LULLABIES OF BROADMOOR

Two plays, three murderers! Murder at the Finborough, and this time, it’s local …
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 murdered the prostitute Olive Young at number 13 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. Propaganda and reality, fact and fiction, real life and theatre, madness and sanity. The lines all shift uneasily in this psychological thriller. Presented with the support of The Friends of Brompton Cemetery across the road from the theatre where William Terriss lies buried, The Murder Club has been specially commissioned for the Finborough Theatre to tell the infamous history of the local area…

Wilderness, also based on a true story, describes a journey from the battlefields of the American Civil War to the cells of nineteenth 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 this production is not suitable for children.

Playwright Steve Hennessy was born in 1958, and has had eleven plays staged in Bristol and four radio plays broadcast in Britain and Ireland. He is writer-in-residence at the Finborough Theatre. His play Still Life won the Venue Magazine Best New Play 2001 Award and was recently revived, touring to Bath, Bristol and Manchester. In Extremis Theatre brings this production direct from its sell out run in Bristol to the capital. Acclaimed young Irish director Caitriona McLaughlin directed Patrick McCabe’s Frank Pig Says Hello at the Finborough Theatre in 2002 and Ronny Jhutti’s Unsung Lullaby in 2001.

The Press on Lullabies of Broadmoor

In Bristol
“Pulls absolutely no punches whatsoever in telling this extraordinary true story, welding together treacle – dark comedy, dream – play surrealism and pastiche Gothic ‘penny dreadful’ to powerful effect.” Venue Magazine

“Vitality, pathos and humour all combine admirably in Steve Hennessy’s dense and powerfully convincing script.” Epigram

“A most wonderful story. Hennessy’s writing is great too, wonderful three dimensional characters … plenty of humour.” Bristol Evening Post

“Darkly funny … frequently disturbing … a combination of acute psychological insight and political and historical breadth … A rich mix of characters and themes … four finely judged performances from Chris Courtenay as Prince, Andrew Michell as True, Marc Danbury as Coleman and, above all, Charlotte Pyke as Olive.” Tom Philips, Venue Magazine

“Chris Courtenay's Prince and Andrew Michell's True are played off beautifully against Marc Danbury's excitable prison guard, Mr Coleman, but it is Charlotte Pyke, as the murdered girl, who really steals the show.”
Rebecca Gilbert, Bristol Evening Post **** Four Stars

In London
" Powerfully performed, in Catriona McLaughlin's absorbing and atmospheric production, by the same set of actors, the dramas are like distorted images of each other, as they juggle with issues such as responsibility and redemption and the relationship between illegitimate individual acts of murder and publicly sanctioned mass killing. The result is a piquant mix of witty Gothic ghoulishness and serious moral questioning . . . The cruel contrast between the precision of (Minor's) lexicography and the appalling mess of his demon driven psychological life is skillfully pointed up in Hennessys play, which shows us how Minor (excellently played by Chris Courtenay) was affected by visits from Eliza (Natalie Hobday), his victims wife and the mother of seven children, and by visitations from the dead mans ghost . . . the play set in Minor's donnish study at Broadmoor casts a haunting spell as it weaves together lurid fantasy and harsh reality and draws us into Minors deeply troubled past . . . Without lapsing into simple sensationalism, the play gives you access to the troubled soul of a man who was so desperate to be a better person that he even went to the lengths of cutting off his own penis . . . In The Murder Club the first play in the double bill Hennessy gives us the tale of two real life murderers (Ronald True and Richard Prince) who committed their crimes in 1922, when Britain was using poison gas in Iraq. True a conman toff whose effeminate bogusness is beautifully communicated by Andrew Michell asks why he, at such a time, is supposed to break my heart over some poxy little tart in the Finborough Road? The ghost of that butchered prostitute (Charlotte Pyke) is the mistress of ceremonies in a tricksy, witty and unresolvable piece." Paul Taylor, The Independent

"Steve Hennessy's doublebill of plays is clever and skilfully performed...the best writing of the evening comes from the cynical narrator, Olive Young, who describes her own demise and picks over the bones of her short, sad life with the detachment of the very damaged. Charlotte Pyke is outstanding in the role . . . an intelligent evening, and the two plays are cleverly linked by Coleman, the kindly prison warder who worries that the criminally insane might give Broadmoor a bad name."
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

"Steve Hennessy, one of the writers in residence at the Finborough, has written two quite fascinating one act plays, based on some of the characters ensconced here, with the added kick that they were all real people with local Earl's Court connections. The plays are revealing and intimate character studies of insanity and the murderous mind . . . the sparky interaction is full of life, death and gallows humour . . . The shining light here is the dead prostitute Young who flits around giving a jolting commentary on her short, shabby life which contrasts with the comfortable lives of the inmates laced with powerfully matter of fact descriptions of her violent death. Wilderness is the story of Minor's relationship with his victims widow, set off against his fantasies about her and his visions of the ghost. Their relationship goes beyond the murderer / victim roles and is touching and funny, in a way that transcends revenge and remorse. Mediating again is the chirpy prison guard Coleman, always ready for some gossip and a piece of the action . . . The production emanates a spooky and surreal sense of place and time and is well worth seeing for its enlightening historical content as well as its drama."
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine

"Steve Hennessy's entertaining script revels in macabre surrealism tempered by shrewd psychology and historical research . . . Drawing on real cases, Hennessy weaves an ornate tapestry of emotional manipulation as True persuades Prince to take part in an inmates entertainment . . . With creepily comic performances by Andrew Michell (True) and Charlotte Pyke (Olive, his victim), there's plenty here to chew on. For William Chester Minor, memories of the the horrors of war and childhood repression combine to create bizarre sexual visions involving his kindly prison guard (Marc Danbury) and Eliza, the wife of his murder victim (Natalie Hobday, robust yet touching) . . . Such is the fertility of Hennessy's mind that his shadowy gothic world compels you to keep watching."
**** 4 starsHelen Chappell, What's On in London

"Steve Hennessy has turned this disturbing true story of madness and murder into a meditation on the barbarism that lurks just beneath the thin veneer of civilised society. This isnt a musty period drama or a whodunnit, but a no holds barred assault on our moral and sexual conventions, our assumptions about sanity and madness and on a society that claims to be civilised, yet seems to thrive on war. All the action takes place in a Broadmoor prison cell. The aura of claustrophobia and immediacy intensified by the small but perfectly formed Finborough Theatre and its tiny set, is frightening in itself. From the outset, the excellent acting serves to sustain disbelief and a sense of horror seems to descend upon the theatre . . . a testament to the ability of director Caitriona McLaughlin, who sustains a sense of foreboding throughout . . . Hennessy has done an outstanding job of using this macabre true story of moral insanity, murder and sex to lay bare the hypocrisy of our own tormented society." Tom Mellen, The Morning Star

"Steve Hennessy has woven true local history with fiction to create this often humorous and incredibly disturbing view of life in Broadmoor. Set against the backdrop of the British Governments involvement in a genocidal war in Iraq, the lines of madness and sanity overlap in a disconcerting way . . . a fantastic performance by Charlotte Pyke. Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin, the space in this intimate theatre was used remarkably. After being so close to this rather worrying bunch of individuals, it was made even more real when walking down the road from the theatre you passed number 13 Finborough Road, where Olive Young was actually murdered. Hennessy cleverly links The Murder Club with Wilderness, the second play by once more using Coleman, the friendly, yet obviously slightly barking himself, prison warden . . .A dark comedy of war, murder and redemption, Hennessys second play is infinitely more disquieting, but no less the richer. Both plays are intriguingly good and together with some fine performances from Chris Courtenay, Marc Danbury, Andrew Michell and Natalie Hobday, you are drawn into the dark, disturbing times" Xenia Poole, The Irish World

"A double bill of plays that remind you why intimate fringe venues can touch parts other theatres can't. My preference is for the first play, The Murder Club, a rumination on the glamorisation of murder, the publics lust for gory details and the mass murders that go unpunished (and unreported) on the other side of the world. Set in 1922, Hennessy has intelligently woven in, as backdrop, the British Commission in Iraq . . . the play is a thought provoking piece, directed with fluidity and poise in a restricted space. In the final minute it swiftly shifts from its established delicacy of manner to a visceral wrenching; bringing form and content into focus to make a very powerful end." Adam Brace, The Irish Post

"This macabre, grisly, but often funny two hander grabs the audience by the dramatic throat and hardly lets go for more than two hours . . . the psychological carnage is left behind long after the blood has been hosed away. Both Michell and Courtenay clearly revel in their characters and blend humour and madness seamlessly. Wide eyed, searingly bitter and with a terrifying cackle, Charlotte Pykes performance as Olive Young, a prostitute murdered by True, is nigh on perfect. Trying to make sense of her early demise, she haunts the cells, under no illusions that anyone will mourn a common tart . . . The venomous ferocity with which Merrett (Andy Michell) returns to take issue with Minor (Chris Courtenay) is shocking and reveals human tragedy stripped to the barest of bones. It is Natalie Hobday's performance as Merretts widow Eliza which tempers the brutish male world in which she becomes entangled . . . every character is created with care and finely executed. Marc Danbury deserves a mention as the jailer John Coleman. This is a consistently interesting, though harrowing evening." Derek Smith, The Stage

"No doubting the quality both of writing and construction in Steve Hennessy's doublebill; his characters resonate in the mind the morning after if, first, you get home safely, that is The Murder Club concerns a killing just down Finborough Road from the theatre. Hennessys young prostitute Olive was battered for calling her client Ronny, not Ronald. Charlotte Pyke's ghostly presence retains the sharpness of her earthly streetlife, mixed with amused toleration of such deadly events. Her killer meets up in Broadmoor with self fancying Richard Prince, who had stabbed famed actor William Terriss decades earlier. At this plays centre is a fascinating duel between these dandy killers, a power game played out by someone who fancies the scratch prisoner band is a mighty symphony orchestra playing his beloved Elgar. Adopting the sublime Nimrod variation to these murky quarters offers a comment on the glories of self confident imperial Britain. Just as the references to mass gassings in Iraq jolts minds to the present day. But no, there they were in the plays 1922 setting: a state sanctioned murder club to outmatch the one devised as a stratagem by True to nobble Prince. These acts of murder are linked by war, which lies in the background of night haunted nmurdering Minor in the second play. Joining them too is John Coleman, the warder played by Marc Danbury with a convincingly seedy energy. In Wilderness we meet the haunted Dr Minor, who made a significant contribution to the Oxford English Dictionary from his prison cell. Like much external information in this doublebill its used to elaborate a character whose interior processes are the focus of interest. Steve Hennessy has a flair for visual moments that summarise character and writes satisfyingly gritty, fluent dialogue. His plays contrast the psychoduel between the criminally insane Broadmoor inmates of the first play with an individual nightmare in the second. Both, again in contrasting manner, place a single female in a male environment. These women are, in different senses, victims, yet both speak with convincingly assertive voices. The Finborough . . .has searched out yet another individual theatre voice from whom we ought to hear more." Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate