Lullabies of Broadmoor

A Broadmoor Quartet

Steve Hennessy

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781849431620
• eBook ISBN:
  9781849437080
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

Four plays. Five murderers. Five victims.

Based on the true stories of five of Broadmoor's most notorious inmates from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and the people they murdered. The closely linked plays of Lullabies of Broadmoor weave together a rich, dark, Gothic tragicomedy about murder, love, madness, personal responsibility and redemption.

THE DEMON BOX

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here?
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t.

The Tempest

‘The Demon Box’ is dedicated to Robert Dadd, apothecary and amateur geologist (1789–1843)

Characters

RICHARD DADD (1817–86)

Artist. At Broadmoor, 1865–86.

DR. WILLIAM CHESTER MINOR (1834–1920)

Surgeon in American Civil War and lexicographer on first Oxford English Dictionary. At Broadmoor, 1872–1910.

MR. COLEMAN

Principal attendant, Block 2, Broadmoor.

ARIEL

A spirit

SET

A section of the back of the dropcloth or drop curtain that Dadd is painting is visible near front of stage. Nearby is a stool and a small table on which stands some paints, rag, brushes, a bowl of water, a fossil and teacups. On other side of stage is an easel with a small painting on it. There is a large coffin-sized crate on castors which can be moved around the stage and is big enough to hold a person. It can be lit from within and one side has a translucent fabric panel that a face can press through. Another side has strange, hieroglyph-like designs on.

HISTORICAL NOTE

After a promising start to his career as an artist, Richard Dadd began to show signs of serious mental disturbance during a trip to Egypt in 1841. Upon his return, believing himself to be under instruction from the god Osiris, he murdered his father. He spent the rest of his life in asylums, first Bethlem Hospital and then Broadmoor. While inside, he spent nine years working on the oil painting regarded as his masterpiece, ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke’. He later completed a watercolour copy in Broadmoor. In 1872 Dr. William Chester Minor and Christiana Edmunds were admitted to Broadmoor and Richard Dadd was asked to decorate the theatre there. Part of this job was a painted drop curtain, entitled ‘The Temple of Fame’. This has not survived, but there is a detailed sketch of the design.

(Preset. Eerie lighting. DADD alone on stage painting drop curtain. Echoing soundscape of whispers, fairy laughter, wind, running water and rain. ARIEL hops, somersaults and gambols onto stage. She perches, hunched up and watches him curiously, head on one side. MINOR is reading from a book. Red light up on COLEMAN who takes a chocolate cream from a bag and studies it.)

COLEMAN: The summer of 1872, and I was tryin’ to lay off the drink, so I ’ad my sweet tooth back, an’ the craving for my old favourites. But then Christiana Edmunds was admitted, the Chocolate Cream Poisoner, and I fell in love with ’er, and these never tasted quite the same again. Oh Chrissie …

(Puts chocolate away again.)

But that’s another story. And you’ve not come to Broadmoor to ’ear about me. I’ve not murdered anyone! Yet. Please, Mr. Dadd, the actors are ready to go on stage!

DADD: They’ll have to wait!

COLEMAN: (To Audience.) For some months now Mr. Richard Dadd ’as been beautifying the theatre ’ere at Broadmoor. Big job!

DADD: Murals for all the walls, panels under the stage, and a huge canvas for the drop curtain entitled ‘The Temple of Fame.’

COLEMAN: Problem is, ’e insisted ’is curtain ’ad to be painted onstage.

DADD: To see what works best in the space!

COLEMAN: The Broadmoor Players are not ’appy! They wanna start rehearsals …

DADD: They’ll have to rehearse in the concert hall! It’s not finished, and it can’t be moved!

COLEMAN: All right! But you’ll need to get a move on! What’s the time now? (Looks at Pocket Watch.) May! About the time Dr. William Chester Minor was admitted.

MINOR: Former surgeon in American Civil War! Scholar and amateur artist!

COLEMAN: Rushed out of lodgings in Lambeth one evening earlier this year and shot dead a complete stranger called George Merrett.

MINOR: I can explain about the shooting!

COLEMAN: Didn’t take ’im long to ’ear that Richard Dadd was a patient.

MINOR: The artist? He’s a fellow of the Royal Academy!

COLEMAN: Yeah, yeah, ’e’s a bloody genius! (To Audience.) Friendship’s rare in ’ere. But part of my job is coaxin’ people out of their box. I ’oped these two might get along.

MINOR: We have shared interests!

COLEMAN: Paintin’ …

MINOR: Egyptology …

COLEMAN: Homicide … The doctor soon ’eard Mr. Dadd was workin’ on the theatre.

MINOR: I love painting! And I love the theatre!

COLEMAN: An’ I saw … an opportunity. (To MINOR.) Only thing is, it’s goin’ a bit slow. I think ’e needs some ’elp.

MINOR: You think he might take … an apprentice?

COLEMAN: Let’s see! Get to...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Venus at Broadmoor
• The Demon Box
• The Murder Club
• Wilderness