Serial killer William Burke to be resurrected in time for Hallowe’en

SERIAL killers Burke and Hare are to haunt the streets of Edinburgh once more as part of a new touring play.

Burke, by Edinburgh crime writer, Caroline Dunford, delves into the mind of one half of Scotland’s most notorious murder duo as he awaits execution.

The play will be hosted in historical jails in visiting Jedburgh, Inveraray and Edinburgh.

Using accounts from his 2-day trial in 1828, this telling of the story will challenge the common perception about who the main protagonist was in the deadly partnership between William Burke and William Hare.

Set in the condemned cell of the city jail on Calton Hill, days before his execution in front of 25,000 people, Burke languishes with only his jailor, Captain Rose, for company.  Wanting to see the good in all men, the honourable Captain Rose strives to discover why these two men committed such atrocities.

Set at a time when attention was focused on the splendour of Edinburgh’s emerging New Town – earning the city the name ‘the Athens of the North’ – while those living in the poorer Old Town were left to fend for themselves.

Burke will be staged at the Vault, Merchant Street, Edinburgh which sits only yards away from the site of the old lock up at Libertons Wynd, where William Burke was brought to from Calton Jail, the night before his execution on the Lawnmarket.

The play will run from October 26-29 at 8pm.

 

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