The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Synopsis

It is the late nineteenth century. The Music Hall Royale is presenting the premiere performance of its musical comedy drama based VERY loosely on the last novel by Charles Dickens. Unfortunately, as we discover, the book is unfinished. From the point at which Dickens puts down his pen forever, you, the audience take over. You must decide whether a crime has been committed, if so, who did it, and which of the characters will finish the play as lovers. The company must learn all 500 possible endings in order to perform whichever variety of conclusions you vote for. Subtle - and not so subtle - measures will be taken as the players try to ensure they have a stab at being villain (or hero). Ultimately though the choice is yours!

Our Review:

21 December 2007

Midway through this rarely seen musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ fifteenth and final novel, in which orphaned Edwin Drood goes missing presumed dead just when he’s about to cancel his marriage plans to his childhood sweetheart Rosa Bud, I began to wonder if the only way of solving the crime was for the audience to join hands, hold a séance and summon the author from his resting place in Dickens heaven to reveal precisely how he intended the plot to thicken when he suddenly died on 9 June 1870 leaving half of the serialised novel unfinished.

Did John Jasper, the lad’s Jekyll and Hyde-like uncle and local choirmaster who frequents opium dens when not giving Rosa piano lessons, bump off Edwin? Could Edwin’s rival in romance, Neville Landless, be the guilty party? And what part did kindly old Reverend Crisparkle play in the vanishing of Edwin?

Fortunately, it turned out that Dickens’ darkest of mysteries was easily solvable by the fina...

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