Prodigious Poisoners – Murder By Gaslight
Murder by Gaslight is a wonderfully ghoulish audience with two of the most infamous poisoners in British history – William Palmer and Harvey Crippen.
Don’t Go Into The Cellar Theatre Company normally brings adaptations of nineteenth-century literature’s greatest ghost and horror stories to modern-day audiences. Formed in 2010, they are the UK’s finest practitioners of macabre, theatrical Victoriana.
However, this is an original piece written by acclaimed actor Jonathan Goodwin, who also plays Palmer and Crippen. He invites the audience to meet the murderous men of medicine while the diabolical doctors regale you with their case histories.
“They are two completely different men,” explained Jonathan. “William Palmer was a serial killer long before the term was invented. He was chronically broke, had an eye for the ladies and a gambling addiction. He had a habit of taking out insurance policies on those closest to him and murdering them for financial gain.
He was a doctor with access to a range of poisons and there were rumours about the death of his wife, his brother and even his children. He was unrepentant but there is humour in his portrayal.
Doctor Crippen was a different story. He was found guilty of poisoning his wife Cora. She disappeared and bones were found in his cellar but he always claimed she left for America with another man. Significantly, a couple of years ago DNA evidence proved the bones were not his wife, or even a woman.”
This vital evidence was 100 years too late to save the doctor from the gallows but Jonothan spent a great deal of time researching both men.
He has always been fascinated with the Victorian and Edwardian eras and while his bookshelves are filled with famous historical titles he allows his imagination free rein when crafting a piece of entertainment.
So if you want to leave your weary work week behind and think you have what it takes to determine the guilty parties then join Goodwin, Palmer and Crippen for some old-fashioned thrills, chills and chuckles at the Old Fire Station on the 14th of October.
For tickets and more information visit www.oldfirestation.carlisle.city
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