 |
PRESS RELEASE
| | Edinburgh - 1827. |
| A
macabre musical tale of bodysnatching, blackmail, murder, madness... Fresh from
a recent performance at the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele, Germany, and selected for
the Kitchen Workshops at The Central School of Speech and Drama (May 2009), Academy
of Death is a bold and exciting new musical, premiered by Audacious Productions
in February 2008. | Medical
advances are saving lives but as Doctor Knox's insatiable appetite for fresh cadavers
grows, so does the desperation of his assistant, smitten with the unattainable
Isabella.
- Is Gray stealing or murdering his victims?
- Where can
Fettes find the money he needs to buy Isabella a diamond ring?
- How can
he ever satisfy Knox's insatiable appetite for fresh materials? Fettes finds a
creative solution to all of his problems, but one that increasingly leads him
down a path of despair, destruction and insanity. |
| Academy of Death is indirectly inspired
by the story of Burke and Hare, two men who in the 1820s murdered seventeen people
in order to provide Doctor Robert Knox with the cadavers he needed to train young
medical students. Bodysnatching, blackmail, murder and madness are not common
themes for a musical. This is a dark and disturbing story, which keeps the audience
on the edge of their seats until the gripping and unexpected denouement. |
| Audacious Productions
is a youth musical theatre company based in Cambridge. Past productions have included
West Side Story and Les Miserables. Academy of Death is their first production
of an original musical and their first appearance at the Fringe. For this production,
they are working with Cambridge-based composer and musical director Geoff Page,
and professional director Eleanor Lyons. | |
...the cost of a life, just fifteen pounds... |
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