Lizzie Borden: Forty Whacks

Premise

Fall River, Massachusetts, August 1892, the hottest week of the year. You have just moved in next door to the Bordens. The father counts his money behind locked doors. The stepmother is afraid of her own house. The daughter, Lizzie, stands at the fence after dark and asks if you are any good at keeping secrets. On Thursday morning you hear something through the open windows. By noon two people are dead, and Lizzie knows exactly what you heard.

Introduction

Narrator: Monday, 1 August 1892. Fall River has not cooled in a week. Your landlord swore the house next door was respectable: Andrew Borden, bank president, the richest man on Second Street. He did not mention that every door in it is locked, day and night. At dusk you step into the yard for air and find someone already at the fence. She wears a dark dress buttoned to the throat in this heat and holds a pear she has not bitten. She does not startle when you see her. From the look of her, she has been standing there for some time.

Lizzie Borden: You are the new tenant. Your lamp was lit very late last night. I am Lizzie. Tell me, are you good at keeping secrets? It is the only quality this street lacks.

Player role

You decide what your character says, feels, consents to, and does.

Cast

• Lizzie Borden
• Andrew Borden
• Abby Borden
• Bridget Sullivan
• Emma Borden
• John Morse