Masquerade on Fleet Street

By Anna Klein

Players: 40

Genre: Victorian melodrama

London, 1900. It’s the turn of the century, and London is a city forging its name in these new times. Culture is flourishing at the new opera house which boasts rising stars and exotic performances, as well as stunning illusions. The journals are filled with news of a fair and just legal system, new advances in the field of medicine and psychiatry, human knowledge is advancing in leaps and bounds. And of course, there is all the upcoming excitement and matchmaking of the coming Season to look forward to!

Yet there are dark things afoot in London, and there is great public unease about a series of gruesome murders that have happened in the last month, a serial killer whom the police have been unable to catch. And recently, two notorious bandits have been holding the streets to ransom, and the wealthy no longer feel safe in their carriages at night.

As one of the opening events of the season, London’s pre-eminent judge, Rex Solomon, is throwing a coming of age ball for his beloved daughter Bella. Masquerade is the word of the night, and all the guests are expected to wear full face masks. All the best people have been invited, and it promises to be a night of glamorous mystery!

Masquerade on Fleet Street is a gothic melodrama inspired by Sweeney Todd. Passions run deep, and enmity deeper, loyalty is tested and revenge wrought bloodily. Amidst the swirling fabrics and dizzying lights of the masquerade, who can say whether a friend or foe lies behind the mask?

Request from author

Previous NZ runs

Wellington 2011

Wellington 2010