REVIEW | Bury The Hatchet, Southwark Playhouse Borough - London

Harry Brogan
19 minutes ago
4 min read

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More than 130 years after Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered in their Massachusetts home, people are still asking the same question: did Lizzie Borden really take an axe to her father and stepmother? In Bury the Hatchet, Out Of The Forest Theatre is less interested in solving the mystery than in confronting something more unsettling: the truth exists, but it may now be impossible to know. Funny, inventive and surprisingly poignant, this is a thoroughly entertaining re-examination of one of history’s most enduring murder mysteries.

Written by Sasha Wilson and directed by Vicky Moran, the play takes us back to Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892, where Andrew and Abby Borden have been found murdered and Andrew’s daughter Lizzie becomes the prime suspect. Rather than simply dramatising the crime and trial, Bury the Hatchet picks apart the case itself: the evidence, the contradictions in Lizzie’s statements and behaviour, and the many different explanations that have emerged in the years since.

What I particularly enjoyed is that the production never tries to force one solution upon us. Instead, it presents multiple possibilities, exploring a variety of motives Lizzie might have had for committing the murders alongside alternative suspects and explanations for supposedly incriminating evidence. Just as one version of events begins to seem convincing, another arrives to undermine it.

Vicky Moran’s direction keeps the storytelling energetic, playful and theatrical. Lizzie (Sasha Wilson) remains at the centre throughout, while Lawrence Boothman and David Leopold move fluidly through multiple supporting roles. Together they form a terrific ensemble, shifting between characters, musicians and storytellers with ease. All three give excellent performances, finding plenty of comedy in the material without losing sight of the very real violence at the centre of the story. There are also moments of genuine poignancy beneath the irreverence.

The production frequently breaks the fourth wall, making the audience part of the storytelling process. At one point, the cast openly discuss what they should tell us while standing directly in front of us. It’s very funny, but the meta-theatrical approach also serves the play extremely well. We are continually reminded that what we’re watching is another retelling of a story that has already been interpreted, reshaped and mythologised countless times.

The audience is occasionally drawn directly into proceedings too. At one point, a member of the audience is invited to read out the verdict, effectively placing us in the position of the jury. Although the audience was small at the performance I attended, most were clearly engaged, laughing readily at the humour and reacting with surprise to some of the more unexpected revelations.

For me, that is where Wilson’s script becomes most interesting. The play is not suggesting that there is no objective truth, or that every explanation is equally valid. Something happened inside the Borden house that morning. There is a true sequence of events. The problem is that contradictory testimony, incomplete evidence and competing explanations may mean we can no longer reach it.

I first saw Bury the Hatchet at the King’s Head Theatre in 2017, and it is fascinating to see how much the piece has developed over the intervening years. The essential ingredients were already there: the competing theories, direct address, playful meta-theatricality and live folk music. But this incarnation feels sharper and more forensic, bringing more evidence and context into the discussion, including the morphine Lizzie had been prescribed in the days after the murders and the possibility that it affected her inquest testimony. What was previously an inventively staged piece with minimal props now feels considerably more polished and visually assured, without losing the quirky theatricality that made the original work.

The design is similarly thoughtful. Damien Stanton’s set is modest but extremely effective, with a clever economy to it: nothing feels decorative for its own sake and every element has a purpose within the storytelling. Helen Stewart’s costume design is fantastic. The costumes are convincingly period and beautifully detailed, helping to root the production firmly in the world of 1892 even as the storytelling itself becomes playful and self-aware.

Will Alder’s lighting is particularly impressive. It is clever and ambitious, transforming the space and heightening some of the show’s most dramatic moments. A sequence in which Lizzie suddenly lunges towards the audience with an axe is made considerably more startling by the lighting, giving us a brief flash of theatrical horror.

Music is woven throughout the production, with the actor-musician cast performing lyrical folk and bluegrass songs live on stage. The music fits the changing mood beautifully, moving between humour, menace and melancholy. There is something particularly appropriate about telling Lizzie’s story through folk music when she herself has become such a figure of American folklore.

My one slight reservation is that, at times, the production feels closer to watching a live true-crime podcast than getting to know Lizzie herself. I wanted a firmer sense of her personality so that I could judge for myself whether I believed her capable of the murders. Yet the contradictions in her testimony and behaviour make her almost impossible to pin down: kind and cruel, funny and solemn, oppressed and oppressor.

Perhaps, though, that is precisely the point. Human beings are contradictory. Few of us could be reduced neatly to one characteristic or motivation, and in Lizzie’s case those contradictions have become part of the mystique surrounding her. The less firmly we can grasp the woman herself, the more space there is for the legend to grow around her. Murderer, victim, rebel, maligned daughter, a woman driven to violence to conceal a forbidden relationship: each interpretation can be supported and challenged in turn. The truth exists, but both the events and the woman at their centre remain elusive.

Overall, Bury the Hatchet is a clever, funny and beautifully performed piece of ensemble theatre that has only grown sharper and more accomplished with time. With inventive staging, atmospheric live music, excellent design and striking use of lighting, it is hugely entertaining while asking genuinely interesting questions about evidence, storytelling, human nature and the limits of what history can tell us. Highly recommended.

★★★★

Bury the Hatchet plays at The Little, Southwark Playhouse Borough, London, until 5th September 2026: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/bury-the-hatchet/