Miss Lizzie/Bridget: Carolyn Crotty* Actress/Lizzie: Meg Wallace Harry Wingate: Steve Peterson* Emma Borden: Amy Moorman* Andrew Borden: Hap Lawrence* Abigal Borden: Deborah Cresswell* Defense: Steve Jarrard Dr. Patrick: Jay Disney*
On August 4, 1892, Lizzie
Borden's father and stepmother were found bludgeoned in their family home. Lizzie
was arrested for murder and the trial date set for June 5, 1893. The trial
lasted fourteen days, and caused a national sensation as it was the first
public trial in the United States to be
covered extensively by the media. Popular opinion was split on the innocence or
guilt of Lizzie Borden, with strong support coming from feminists and animal
rights advocates.
In BLOOD RELATIONS, writer
Sharon Pollock sets the action ten years after the trial as a play within a
play, with the part of Lizzie Borden enacted by her friend, an actress from
Boston, with Lizzie assuming the role of the maid Bridget, an observer and
director of the replay of the events that culminated in the murder of the
Bordens. This framework establishes the possibility of multiple perspectives.
Of course what “happened” ten
years earlier depends on what is remembered, what is re-enacted. The play
avoids realism and defies logical time progression as there aren’t clear
entrances and exits and the actors weave in and out of the present and past as
they tell the story of that fateful night as well as the trial. There are three
real characters on stage, Lizzie, the Actress, and sister Emma. The others are
pulled up from the memories of the 1892 event. This gives the scenes with
Borden, his wife, Harry, and Dr. Patrick a dreamlike quality; they are the
ghosts of Lizzie’s memory. We are the witnesses and try to ascertain the
“truth” - which proves endlessly elusive and multifaceted.
So although Lizzie Borden was
acquitted when her lawyers persuaded the jury that the evidence was
circumstantial, the question still remains: “Did she or didn’t she?” We challenge you to make your own decision
after seeing BLOOD RELATIONS.
