Axes to grind: Lizzie @Swkplay
Arriving at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant , there are plenty of pigeons (real and otherwise) inside and outside the theatre. Having not been there since it opened at the start of the year, I figured it was an art installation. Little did I know that it was a crucial part of Lizzie, the hard rock, full-throated true crime rock musical. Pigeons are solace from a stifling, oppressive life for an unmarried woman in 1890s Massachusetts. And that is probably all the subtlety you'll get in this high-energy production. It originated at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester and now makes a lot of noise in the Southwark Playhouse's basement venue. Based on the trial of the century in 1890s Massachusetts, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of murdering her stepmother and father with an axe. Over time, everyone believed she had done it. There's even a nursery rhyme about her. This piece is less interested in the whodunnit and more in the whyshedunnit....