How do you stage the life and trial of Lizzie Borden, accused and acquitted of killing her father and stepmother with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892? Actor-musicians interweaving folk songs, murder ballads, blues and bluegrass is one idea. Framing the story as a sort of true crime podcast is another. So is making it a macabre comedy. How about the cast stepping in and out of performance as if in rehearsal? What about getting the audience involved?
Out of the Forest Theatre’s production adopts all these approaches, muddying the water for an already complicated story. Writer Sasha Wilson stars alongside Lawrence Boothman and David Leopold in Vicky Moran’s production, which rattles along at such a pace that even if you know the bare bones of the case it can be hard to keep up.
The cast spend little time in character as the principal figures of Borden, her sister, the family’s maid and the couple, Abby and Andrew, respectively given 40 and 41 whacks of the axe according to the grisly rhyme. The result is curiously emotionless, the script overloaded with footnotes to a story that feels stifled.
Evidently well researched, there is some captivating detail – not least about “America’s most haunted house”, where the killings took place, now operating as a hotel – but a leaner account would be far more haunting. The show never chills and has a jarring combination of occasional earnestness and throwaway comedy (complete with talking corpse) akin to the Borden rock opera Lizzie. It does, however, raise evergreen questions about sensationalism and sexism, and captures the historical era, including the limited scientific knowledge hindering the investigation.
In one of several inspired touches, a violin is delivered in lieu of a baby for a birthing scene. While the story is frustratingly stop-start, the music is richly delivered, from the opener Feeling Good to The Wayfaring Stranger, Down in the Willow Garden and Little Sadie, its lyrics now name-checking Borden who will be for ever cast as both killer and victim.
At Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh, until 25 August
All our Edinburgh festival reviews