Vertigo follow Out with Amityville

Vertigo Theatre Productions, soon to be staging brand new play Out, follow this production with Amityville – The DeFeo Murders.

In 1974, 22 year old Ronnie DeFeo Jr. was found guilty of murdering his entire family, including his parents and four younger siblings in the famous Amityville House. To this day DeFeo has told so many different versions of what happened that night and who was or wasn’t involved that the full truth may never be known.

Writers Craig Hepworth and Adele Stanhope have based this new production on interviews, facts and some artistic licence in a drama that looks behind the perfect suburban exterior at a family at breaking point and a son who was ready to explode.

“The DeFeo’s were having to deal with a son whose drugs, criminal behaviour and hatred were destroying them, a father who was violent towards him and his wife and so much more. Researching these people and this situation was both exhilarating and heartbreaking but it makes for a great stage drama”, says Hepworth.

Craig is keen to point out that this is not the horror story featuring ghosts and things that go bump in the night. “The horror story came a year and a half later when the Lutz family moved in, after the DeFeo murders. That was a story myself and my co writer Adele were not interested in telling, as we wanted to tell a human story about a family.”

Amityville – The DeFeo Murders runs from 8 – 13 November and features Rick Carter (CB in the UK premiere of Dog Sees God) returning to Vertigo in the role of Ronnie DeFeo and Vertigo regular Emma Willcox who recently stared in ‘M’ and Rage playing Dawn DeFeo. Further casting is yet to be announced.