A Shot in the Dark
Cast: 3M, 6F (with doubling)
Run time: 110 minutes
When Lady Molly Robertson-Bryce, Head of a Suffragette Cell in London, attends a Halloween shoot, more than a brace of pheasants is killed. Blackmail, treason, and unrequited love are uncovered before she can prove that the victim, the Anti-Suffragist Lord Devonport MP, was not disposed of by one of her loyal followers.
October 1912. Blackmail, treason and murder.
When Lord Devonport, a vehement Anti-Suffrage campaigner and War Officer Minister, is murdered in his study on the night of the annual Halloween shoot at Allington Hall, several people have reasons for wanting him dead. Was it a simple accident - or murder?
Who was responsible? The soon to be disinherited nephew? A spurned lover? A militant Suffragette?
Lady Molly investigates, using state of the art fingerprint evidence to catch a criminal.
CHARACTERS: (doubling possible.)
Lady Molly Robertson-Bryce (50s) Leader of the Chelsea Suffragist Cell. Lord Devonport’s niece.
Eva Gray (30-40s): Molly’s secretary and an independent investigative journalist.
Constable Cyril Higgins: An approachable, pragmatic Scotland Yard police constable (30s)
Lord Bertie Devonport (50s): A wealthy, anti-suffrage War Office minister.
Captain Hubert Allington (30s): Army officer, Devonport’s nephew. Haunted by debt. A Lothario.
Lady Beatrice Allington (50s): Widow. Hubert’s mother, and Lord Devonport’s youngest sister.
Peggy Vince (late 20s): A working-class militant suffragette. She runs the Suffragist’s printing operation.
Miss Jane Culver (40s): A very wealthy, nervous spinster. She secretly funds Lady Molly’s suffragist cell.
Major Peddington (45-55): injured Major, with a grudge against Lord Devonport.
Mabel Grimshaw (20s) a quiet, observant ladies maid to Lady Beatrice. Also a suffragette.
Constable Smith (25-30), a Metropolitan policewoman.
Florence, a housemaid (20s). a radical young suffragette.
Von Schmitt, the German attaché to the UK, but also a German spy for the Kaiser.
Night watchman (30s)
Period:
Halloween to Christmas 1912/ Spring 1913
Setting:
A composite set comprising a desk and chair with wooden chair opposite to one side of the stage. This represents all office/study settings. The hard chair is used centrally during police station interviews. A rug is set under the front legs of the desk.
A chaise longe or settle and an armchair with a low table to one side represents all drawing/sitting rooms.
Upstage centre is a fireplace.
Downstage is clear for the ‘street’ action.
