Synopsis

It’s 1951 and Charles Jeffries, an unsuccessful writer, plots to murder his wife Marion. Through an advertisement in the personal column of a magazine, he makes contact with Richard Edwards, a lonely gay man. Charles persuades Richard to help him create an unbreakable alibi, although Richard has no idea of the reason for this. Charles has also arranged the meeting in such a way that Richard will not be able to identify him or ever get in touch with him again.

Charles suspects, wrongly, that his wife is having an affair with a young man, David Grant, who lives nearby and is a frequent visitor. With the help of the false alibi, Charles commits the murder in front of David, in such a way that all the evidence points to David as the murderer.

David is charged, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, and his sister, Nicky, works against time to prove his innocence. In the meantime, Charles, the true murderer, is secure in the belief that he has got away with it. Then he begins to receive anonymous phone calls and his carefully arranged alibi appears to be in danger.

The phone calls are followed by an attempt at blackmail. He identifies the blackmailer as Richard Edwards, who, in spite of all Charles’s precautions, has managed to find him. Charles decides that the blackmailer must be killed too. Having accomplished this, he feels that, at last, he is secure.

Then he receives another anonymous phone call, and when the ‘dead’ man appears, his total disintegration as the truth finally comes out provides the climax of the play. Such a shame for Charles that Nicky, quite by accident, had met Richard in the local pub.

Characters

(3m, 3f, 2m/f)

• Charles Jeffries - 50s,good looking, has great charm
• Marion Jeffries - 50s,elegant, charming, sophisticated, sexually attractive
• Lorna Petersen - late 40s,attractive, though in a less obviously sexual way than Marion.
• Nicky Grant - 35-40,self-assured, aware (f)
• David Grant - 30-35, good looking, quiet and shy, Nicky’s younger brother
• Richard Edwards - 30-50,gay (but not overtly)
• Detective Inspector Williams (m/f)
• Detective Sergeant Verrall – alternatively, a uniformed PC or WPC (m/f)