The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

by Kate Summerscale, Alexandra Wood (Adapted by)

Overview

Summer 1860, an elegant country house, a young boy is found dead in an outside privy. All clues point towards the murderer being a member of the grieving household.

Called to the scene is the most celebrated detective of his day, Jonathan Whicher from Scotland Yard. But this case challenges him in ways he's never been challenged before.

Over twenty years later, still haunted by the case, Whicher visits the murderer. As they replay the past, they start to question the nature of truth, the desire for certainty and the possibility of redemption.

This compelling stage adaptation of Kate Summerscale's gripping bestseller opened at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in May 2023.

This ensemble piece provides rich opportunities for companies looking to intrigue their audiences with a fresh take on a dark Victorian mystery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788506847
Publisher:	Hern, Nick Books
Publication date:	05/11/2023
Series:	NHB Modern Plays
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	72
File size:	678 KB

About the Author

Kate Summerscale is a celebrated writer, who won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and the British Book Awards Book of the Year, amongst other accolades, for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Alexandra Wood is a playwright whose other stage adaptations include Jung Chang's Wild Swans for the Young Vic and American Repertory Theatre.

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number-one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, published in 2008, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award.

Her debut, The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Award. The Wicked Boy, published in 2016, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, and The Haunting of Alma Fielding, published in 2020, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

Alexandra Wood is a UK playwright whose plays include: an adaptation of Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (Watermill Theatre, 2023); The Tyler Sisters (Hampstead Theatre, 2019); The Human Ear (Paines Plough, 2015); Ages (Old Vic New Voices); an English version of Manfred Karge's Man to Man (Wales Millennium Centre); Merit (Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2015); The Initiate (Paines Plough, 2014; winner of Scotsman Fringe First); an adaptation of Jung Chang's Wild Swans (ART/Young Vic); The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); The Centre (Islington Community Theatre); Decade (co-writer, Headlong); Unbroken (Gate Theatre, London, 2009); The Lion's Mouth (Royal Court Rough Cuts); The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court Theatre, London, 2007) and the radio play Twelve Years (BBC Radio 4).

She is a winner of the George Devine Award (for The Eleventh Capital) and was the Big Room Playwright-in-residence at Paines Plough in 2013.

Editorial Reviews

A true crime classic turned into a tense drama... ingeniously plotted... Kate Summerscale's Victorian potboiler is deftly condensed in a production that brings out the misogyny and class snobbery of the era.”—Guardian

“Taut and magnetic... Alexandra Wood's bold adaptation turns the book's structure on its head... electric.”—The Times

“An utterly transporting piece of storytelling that will keep you gripped as it carefully carries you towards its conclusion.”—Broadway World

“Powerful... a wonderfully concise retelling and reexamination of the facts... The story unfolds with pleasing clarity.”—WhatsOnStage

“Alexandra Wood's dramatization for the stage intuitively captures the atmosphere of Summerscale's book... keeps the audience on its toes, piecing together fragments of the case and steering toward a remarkable conclusion... exposes the deep-seated, class-ridden misogyny of the Victorian era.”—The Stage

From the Publisher