Lives of the Great Poisoners

Caryl Churchill

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2014
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780014326
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A multidisciplinary theatre piece about the most infamous poisoners in history, written by Caryl Churchill in collaboration with composer Orlando Gough and choreographer Ian Spink.

Lives of the Great Poisoners combines elements of text, dance and song to tell the stories of famous killers from Medea to Dr Crippen.

It was first performed at the Arnolfini, Bristol, in February 1991 in a production by Second Stride, the performance collective co-founded by Ian Spink, Siobhan Davies and Richard Alston.

LIVES OF THE GREAT POISONERS

PROLOGUE

Elixir of Life

MEDEA restores AESON, JASON’s father, to youth.

We hear wordless singing. MEDEA’s assistants (CHORUS OF POISONS) enter carrying objects which include cup, knife, metal container (cauldron), henbane, rubber toad. With one hand the dancers gesture the preparations made for the ritual, digging a pit, building a fire and collecting herbs. MEDEA enters and takes the henbane and toad and throws them into the pot. She goes into a spasm. AESON, very old and weak, is carried in by JASON and laid on the floor. MEDEA takes the knife (see below), one of the assistants places a cloth under AESON’s head, and MEDEA cuts his throat. His body is turned upside down to drain the blood. MEDEA, using the cup, takes magic potion from the cauldron and pours it into the cut. He revives in a series of jerks. As the others leave AESON does a small youthful dance and bounds up the wall as it lowers into the next scene.

MEDEA.

Hurting you I heal you Killing you I cure you Secrets of death and new life Poisons that heal Fill your blood fill your breath By my skill I kill you and give you new life

DR CRIPPEN

Evening at Hilldrop Crescent

CRIPPEN and MIDGLEY. MIDGLEY is the CRIPPENS’ lodger.

MIDGLEY.

Red was my first thought, the colour red. You want to guess how that came to me? You’re a country boy. You ever seen the trailing arbutus that blooms under snow? That was magic to me. And what colour are those arbutus leaves? Red. Because the red absorbs the heat. So –

CRIPPEN.

I don’t recall the leaves of the arbutus.

MIDGLEY.

Next time you go home to Michigan you take a look. So, red, if we could colour the fuel red, do you follow me?

CRIPPEN.

It would absorb heat –

MIDGLEY.

It would, it would vastly improve its combustion characteristics and, in a word, prevent knock.

CRIPPEN.

So you found a red dye –

MIDGLEY.

I found iodine. Homely old iodine your ma used to put on your cut knee. / And would you

CRIPPEN.

No, really? I remember –

MIDGLEY.

believe it? Iodine in the gas stop...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction by Caryl Churchill
• Introduction by Ian Spink
• Original Production
• Characters
• Lives of the Great Poisoners
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information