Entertaining Murder – book, music & lyrics by Chris Burgess. Upstairs at the Gatehouse, North Road, Highgate Village, London until 01 December 2024,

3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“The Bywaters murder of 1922.”

This work in progress was staged as a tryout and filmed for a planned podcast so it does present the problem that what one is reviewing is by no means the finished article. It is, however, in pretty good condition as it is although that terrible title needs to go. For once I knew nothing in advance about what was to come but the word Chicago rapidly came to mind as the story unfolded. It proved to be an account of one of the most notorious British murders and a miscarriage of justice, the case of Edith Thompson and Freddy Bywaters hanged in 1922 for the murder of her husband Percy. Freddy, a young seaman, had come to lodge with Edith and her husband – it was not a happy marriage – and the pair fell in love. But Thompson refused to divorce her and Freddy left, but although he spent time at sea Edith, who at 29 was nine years older than him, carried on their affair writing him a stream of letters in some of which she did discuss ways of killing her husband. Freddy was obsessed with her and one night when the couple were returning from the theatre he stabbed Percy multiple times. Edith did not know he was going to do it but the morality of the time was such that she was seen as a guilty party, a woman who had not done what women were expected to do and provide her husband with a home and family. The newspapers of the day pilloried her – they were the social media of the time – and she was an older woman with a young lover, and there were those letters. The talk about how to kill her husband only appeared in some of them and she abandoned the plans, but the prosecution used them to incriminate her. Freddy insisted throughout that she knew nothing about what he was going to do to no avail. The judge's summing up was biased and both went to the gallows. There is no reason why the Bywaters Thompson case should not be the subject of a musical and Burgess has provided a tuneful period score, good lyrics and a crisp telling of their story. It is narrated by the hugely experienced Sue Kelvin playing a character called “the writer” and the performances of Daisy Snelson as Edith, a dazzling professional debut, Dominic Sullivan as the obsessed Freddy, Alex Cosgriff as Percy and several other characters, and Jude St James as the other women required are equally good. It may be a work in progress but there was no sign of that from the cast in an evening which, were it a work completed, would have deserved that extra star. The Bywater murder case is a tragic story about a miscarriage of justice as well as a murder and “selling” it as “a murder mystery musical” is a mistake.

Cast

Daisy Snelson – Edith

Dominic Sullivan - Freddy

Sue Kelvin – The writer

Alex Cosgriff – Percy

Jude St James – Songstress

Creatives

Director - Chris Burgess

Musical Arranger – Steven Ellis

Musical Director – Isaac Adni

Movement Director -Robbie O'Reilly

Lighting Designer – Simon Jackson