ajhlovestheatre

BURY THE HATCHET

written by Sasha Wilson

directed by Vicky Moran

an Out Of The Forest production 

Southwark Playhouse Borough – The Little,  London – until 5 September 2026

running time: 75 minutes no interval 

https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/bury-the-hatchet/

Bonkers, brief and enjoyable, Out Of The Forest’s Bury The Hatchet is a unique, surprising fusion of cabaret, Grand Guignol horror, courtroom drama and rollicking good fun. This exploration of the Lizzie Borden legend, equal parts factual and fanciful, has been knocking around fringe stages for some eight years, but honestly it’s not hard to see why it keeps coming back. 

The question of whether Lizzie actually did murder her father Andrew and stepmom Abby in the rural family home in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892 is something that has fascinated storytellers and true crime specialists for decades. Furthermore, Bury The Hatchet (there’s a moderately funny running gag that Lizzie can’t tell the difference between a hatchet and an axe) is a fun time in the theatre where you might actually learn something (unlike, say, the 2009 rock musical Lizzie which had two runs here at Southwark but where it was hard to work out what was going on over all the shrieking and posturing). Plus, this must be comparatively cheap to produce (three performers on a unit set) and proves a grand showcase for talent, requiring the trio to be multi-roleing character actors, comics, compères and versatile musicians.

Writer Sasha Wilson leads from the front as an acerbic Lizzie, calm and composed on the surface but convincingly, and alarmingly, unhinged when required. Her sidekicks, Lawrence Boothman and David Leopold, are equally impressive playing everyone else, from a stern judge to Lizzie’s disapproving older sister and the flighty but vaguely sinister Irish maid Bridget. All three are terrific, versatile folk musicians and vocalists.

There’s a vivid pink identifying label attached to every prop, including the fatal hatchet (or is it an axe?!), a period telephone, and sundry other items to aid the storytelling, as well as to the fiddles, guitars and banjos employed by the cast, making them look like a camp cross between exhibits in a museum and pieces of potentially incriminating evidence being used in a forensic investigation. 

The principal visual impact (set by Damien Stanton, costumes by Helen Stewart) is of a sort of low budget, gothic stylishness, and it’s pretty effective. I can’t help but wish Will Alder had found another way of lighting the show by shining lamps straight into the eyes of audience seated in the central section. It may all look wonderfully atmospheric when viewed from an angle but, seated head on, the main visual takeaway is one of acute physical discomfort. 

The story shifts perspective several times between corroborated facts and suppositions about what might have happened, and how Lizzie’s life later turned out. The initial concept of setting the audience up as the jury is only fitfully alighted upon as the show goes on, but the wit of the writing, the sheer theatricality of Vicky Moran’s staging and the quality of the performances collectively provide such an acid rush of pleasure that it doesn’t overly matter.

Bury The Hatchet doesn’t necessarily add anything to the Lizzie Borden narrative that we don’t already know: the Sapphic overtones, intimations of family abuse, the dichotomy between a moneyed, luxurious life and criminal activity of the most heinous order…it’s all here. But it’s presented with such originality and skill that it’s impossible not to be grimly enchanted.