Death in the Theatre

"A richly entertaining account of tragic theatre accidents and murders most foul. If theatre walls could talk, what secrets would they reveal? Chris Wood provides fascinating answers with tales of brawling ushers, murderously jealous husbands, stampeding crowds and infant tragedies. A meticulously researched and vivid collection of lives lost in the palaces of dreams. A must-read for all lovers of the theatre, providing shocks and gasps of horror when real life proves to be more dramatic than any play on stage." - Hugh Bonneville

"Immaculately researched and beautifully macabre. This is a real treat for anyone who is either a fan of the theatre or of untimely deaths. I loved it!" - Peter James

Britain’s theatrical wonderland has been a cornerstone of culture for centuries, delighting and thrilling audiences with an assemblage of exhilarating spectacles. Beyond the trodden boards, and tucked neatly behind the curtain however, lies a catalogue of real life destruction and grisly murder that our greatest tragedians would surely be proud to have presided over. Tread the bloodied boards of Britain’s theatres and witness the deathly dramas that have played out so dramatically within them.

Death in the Theatre collects an astonishing selection of startling tragedies from Britain’s throng of theatres. There is something especially staggering when the player exits life on their adorned stage, and yet, with this by no means an infrequent occurrence, death has made many a fearful cameo appearance – stalking the stalls and grimly reaping the galleries in its macabre and relentless fashion.

In 1910 a strange midnight tragedy was enacted in a London theatre, where the brutal murder of an elderly stage carpenter prompted huge excitement among the theatre-going world and indeed wider public.

How did a children’s magic show descend into such unspeakable horror that would leave 183 youngsters dead in a Sunderland theatre, their tiny bodies brutally laid out in the dress circle for the bleakest of identity parades?

Learn of outrageous tragedy such as the young man mauled to death by a lion in a Gloucester theatre, and the unfortunate victim killed in the Dumfries Theatre Royal – quite literally – by the limelight.