Writer’s debut play is mystery to ponder

A NEW play about a Victorian doctor who could have been Britain’s first serial killer is coming to the Civic – and giving audiences the chance to turn detective.

True-crime murder mystery What’s Your Poison? is the first play by journalist and author Steve Orme.

It features 19th-century medic William Palmer, who allegedly poisoned several people, including his wife, his alcoholic brother, his mother-in-law and four of his children.

Playwright Orme said: “I’ve been captivated by this story for more than a decade.

“There’s no doubt he was a rogue, a gambler and a womaniser who defrauded his mother out of thousands of pounds - but was he a serial killer?”

The play is seen from two perspective - the atmospheric Victorian era with the doctor, his family and his trial, and a contemporary viewpoint with a young couple eager to explore whether Palmer’s conviction for murdering a close friend was a miscarriage of justice.

“I used to work in television and ten years ago I produced a trailer for a documentary,” Orme added.

“I turned this into a stage play and sent it to Rumpus Theatre Company whose work I was familiar with.

“They lapped it up and decided to mount a tour.”

Director John Goodrum said: “It fitted in with my fascination for everything to do with Victorian gothic horror, both fictional and factual.

“It’s certainly in the Rumpus tradition and has a delicious final twist.”

Orme, who is now working on his second crime novel, explained he had become intrigued with the story of the man known as the Prince of Poisoners, when a friend alerted him to it.

“A wax effigy of Palmer was displayed in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds for more than 120 years,” he said.

“When Palmer was on trial Charles Dickens described him as ‘the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey’.

“But where is the evidence? Palmer was hanged for the murder of John Parsons Cook, who was supposed to have been poisoned with strychnine. But at the post-mortem examination, no strychnine was found in his body.

“Audiences can finally make up their own minds as to how many people William Palmer poisoned – if any.”

What’s Your Poison will be at Rotherham Civic Theatre on October 25.