Edith
by Harriet Madeley
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Director Madelaine Moore and writer Harriet Madeley, have done a fantastic job' - Reviews Hub
'tells the story of a real woman in a beautiful way' - Salford Now
'unlike any other play I’d seen' - The Mancunion
'one of the most thought-provoking pieces of theatre I have ever seen' - Quest Media Network
Edith @ The Lowry Feb 2023 (Image: Joel Fildes)
Edith @ The Lowry Feb 2023 (Image: Joel Fildes)
Edith @ The Lowry Feb 2023 (Image: Joel Fildes)
Edith @ The Lowry Feb 2023 (Image: Joel Fildes)
Developed over a year in R&D with award-winning verbatim company, Crowded Room, EDITH is an electrifying recreation of the trial that split the nation. The development of the play also included workshops with women at HMP Styal,
In December 1922, 28 year-old Edith Thompson was put on trial for inciting her husband’s murder.
Just two months earlier, 20 year-old Frederick Bywaters had stabbed him as he walked home.
The prosecution claim Edith told him to do it. The evidence? Her love letters.
Twelve members of the British public would decide if she lived or died.
Their guilty verdict inspired a petition signed by a million people.
100 years later, using the real court transcripts, this new play re-examines the sensational case of one of the last women to be executed in the UK.
According to her biographer Laura Thompson, Edith “never stood a chance” in front of a 1922 jury. But 100 years on, do we see her differently?
Creative team
Writter: Harriet Madeley
Director: Madelaine Moore
Producer: Danica Corns for Crowded Room
Sound design: Russell Ditchfield
Sound associate: Bella Kear
Set & costume design: Sascha Gilmour
Video & lighting design: Luca Panetta
DoP: James Ian Gray