Female Gothic

Directed by Guy Masterson (Morecambe) Adapted and Performed by Rebecca Vaughan (Austen's Women; I, Elizabeth)

From the company that brought you Austen’s Women, I, Elizabeth & Diaries of Adam & Eve

An artist, gripped by the clutching fingers of a dead past; a scientist, defying nature in the dark realm of the senses; an expectant father driven mad by creeping shadows…

In the unquiet, stygian darkness between life and death, a lone, haunted woman tells chilling tales of the macabre and uncanny, of love, loss, death and the darkness beyond, illuminating the curious frailties of human nature…

The Victorian fascination with tales of mystery and the supernatural created an enduring legacy of Gothic fiction; but it is often the male writers that we remember. Today, Charles Dickens, M R James, Edgar Allen Poe and Sheridan Le Fanu continue to be celebrated, yet many of the brilliant, evocative, thrilling and eerie ghost stories created by the great and incredibly popular female writers of that era – Mary Shelley, George Eliot, M E Braddon, Edith Wharton, Edith Nesbit et al – have gathered dust and been forgotten. Until now…

Dyad Productions creates, produces and tours classic theatre with an innovative and contemporary emphasis. This dark celebration of female gothic is their fourth original production in as many years. Previous works, Austen’s Women and I, Elizabeth were five-star successes at Edinburgh and Adelaide in 2009 and 2010, with The Diaries of Adam and Eve garnering five-star reviews at Edinburgh 2011. All three plays continue to tour across the UK and internationally.

Female Gothic is written and performed by Rebecca Vaughan (writer/actor: Austen’s Women; I, Elizabeth; actor: The Diaries of Adam and Eve) and continues the successful collaboration between Dyad and director Guy Masterson (Olivier Award-winning Morecambe, Scaramouche Jones). Costumes are provided by Kate Flanaghan (I, Elizabeth, Austen’s Women, Bollywood Steps, The Diaries of Adam and Eve), and the script editor is Dyad writer/actor Elton Townend Jones (The Diaries of Adam and Eve, Cutting the Cord, Teechers). Sound design by Waen Shepherd.

★★★★★ ‘I can’t recommend this highly enough’ (Fringe Review on I, Elizabeth)

★★★★★ ‘Cleverly written and superbly performed’ (One4Review on Austen’s Women)

★★★★★ ‘Hugely entertaining’ (The Carrick on The Diaries of Adam & Eve)

★★★★★ ‘Nothing short of breathtaking’ (Adelaide Theatre Guide on Austen’s Women)

★★★★ ‘Great fun…the humour rarely lets up.’ (British Theatre Guide on The Diaries of Adam & Eve)

Text supplied by third party.