Crime Files Series General Editor: Clive Bloom Since its invention in the nineteenth century, detective fi ction has never been more popular. In novels, short stories, fi lms, radio, television and now in computer games, private detectives and psychopaths, prim poisoners and overworked cops, tommy gun gangsters and cocaine criminals are the very stuff of modern imagination, and their creators one mainstay of popular consciousness. Crime Files is a ground- breaking series offering scholars, students and discerning readers a comprehensive set of guides to the world of crime and detective fi ction. Every aspect of crime writing, detective fi ction, gangster movie, true- crime exposé, police procedural and post- colonial investigation is explored through clear and informative texts offering comprehensive coverage and theoretical sophistication. Titles include: Maurizio Ascari A COUNTER- HISTORY OF CRIME FICTION Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational Pamela Bedore DIME NOVELS AND THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN DETECTIVE FICTION Hans Bertens and Theo D’haen CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CRIME FICTION Anita Biressi CRIME, FEAR AND THE LAW IN TRUE CRIME STORIES Clare Clarke LATE VICTORIAN CRIME FICTION IN THE SHADOWS OF SHERLOCK Paul Cobley THE AMERICAN THRILLER Generic Innovation and Social Change in the 1970s Michael Cook DETECTIVE FICTION AND THE GHOST STORY The Haunted Text Michael Cook NARRATIVES OF ENCLOSURE IN DETECTIVE FICTION The Locked Room Mystery Barry Forshaw BRITISH CRIME FILM Subverting the Social Order Barry Forshaw DEATH IN A COLD CLIMATE A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction Emelyne Godfrey FEMININITY, CRIME AND SELF- DEFENCE IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE AND SOCIETY From Dagger- Fans to Suffragettes Emelyne Godfrey MASCULINITY, CRIME AND SELF- DEFENCE IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE Duelling with Danger Beatrix Hesse THE ENGLISH CRIME PLAY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Lee Horsley THE NOIR THRILLER Merja Makinen AGATHA CHRISTIE Investigating Femininity Fran Mason AMERICAN GANGSTER CINEMA From Little Caesar to Pulp Fiction Fran Mason HOLLYWOOD’S DETECTIVES Crime Series in the 1930s and 1940s from the Whodunnit to Hard- Boiled Noir Linden Peach MASQUERADE, CRIME AND FICTION Criminal Deceptions Steven Powell (editor) 100 AMERICAN CRIME WRITERS Alistair Rolls and Deborah Walker FRENCH AND AMERICAN NOIR Dark Crossings Susan Rowland FROM AGATHA CHRISTIE TO RUTH RENDELL British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction Melissa Schaub MIDDLEBROW FEMINISM IN CLASSIC BRITISH DETECTIVE FICTION The Female Gentleman Adrian Schober POSSESSED CHILD NARRATIVES IN LITERATURE AND FILM Contrary States Lucy Sussex WOMEN WRITERS AND DETECTIVES IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY CRIME FICTION The Mothers of the Mystery Genre Heather Worthington THE RISE OF THE DETECTIVE IN EARLY NINETEENTH- CENTURY POPULAR FICTION R.A. York AGATHA CHRISTIE Power and Illusion Crime Files Series Standing Order ISBN 978– 0– 333– 71471– 3 (hardback) 978– 0– 333– 93064– 9 (paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of diffi culty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England The English Crime Play in the Twentieth Century Beatrix Hesse Professor of English and Cultural and Media Studies, Universität Passau, Germany © Beatrix Hesse 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-46303-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identifi ed as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-57517-6 ISBN 978-1-137-46304-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137463043 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Contents Acknowledgements vi 1 The Body in the Library and the Body on Stage 1 Part I A History of the Crime Play 2 From Victorian Melodrama to the End of the Twenties 21 3 From the 1930s to the End of World War II 34 4 From the End of World War II to 1955 48 5 From 1956 to the End of the Sixties 64 6 From Sleuth to In- Yer- Face Theatre 78 Part II A Poetics of the Crime Play 7 Settings and Stage Sets 97 8 Timing and Plot “Construction” 117 9 Dramatic Characters 134 10 Violence, Crime and Punishment 154 11 Genre, Generic Development and Subgenres 171 Part III The Crime Play and Detective Fiction 12 Stage Adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Detective Stories 197 13 Other Types of Detective Fiction Adapted for the Stage 218 Coda: The Twentieth- Century English Crime Play – A View from 2015 238 Notes 242 Bibliography: The Plays 261 Bibliography: Works Cited 271 Index 279 v Acknowledgements The preliminary research for this book was funded by two equal opportuni- ties programmes: the HSP III and HWP (now sadly both extinct), for which I am profoundly grateful. I have also long wanted to thank my academic teacher, Professor Klaus Peter Jochum, who had already retired at the time I was working on this book and still gave generously of his time and expertise. His patience and critical intelligence have been invaluable. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Iris Wagner, who proofread the manuscript at very short notice and removed a number of mistakes. vi 1 The Body in the Library and the Body on Stage Many of the most popular English stage plays of the last century were con- cerned with crime, most frequently murder, and its detection. The present study will examine these plays, which in some ways are so like detective fiction and in other respects are very different. The title phrase of this chap- ter, “the body in the library and the body on stage” plays on the contrast between the popular image of a dead body found in the midst of “fossil- ized,” dead, written language and theatrical performance in which living bodies utter living, spoken language. Twentieth- century English detective fiction created a massive output of stories revolving around the discovery of a dead body and the reconstruction of how that body came to be a dead body. Since drama is concerned with the actions of living bodies one might assume that no comparable genre has evolved in the theatre. This is far from the case. The term used for this kind of play in this study will be “crime play,” since this is a fairly neutral and comprehensive term which does not imply preconceived ideas about the structure or focus of these plays.1 “Crime play” is defined as a play revolving around a crime and its detection. The crime must be the central topic of the play, which means that, for instance, plays on family conflicts that happen to escalate into violence will not be consid- ered unless the focus is on the illegality of such violence. “Crime” is defined according to the textbooks on criminal law. The definition that states the essential aspects most clearly seems to be the one formulated by the House of Lords in 1957 (Board of Trade v. Owen): “an unlawful act or default which is an offence against the public and renders the person guilty of the act liable to legal punishment”.2 The term “unlawful act” already contains sev- eral important aspects. “Unlawful” stresses the principle of legality: before an action can be a crime, there must be a law that prohibits it. “Act” refers to the legal principle of “actus reus,” meaning a willed, voluntary act com- mitted in “mens rea,” a wrongful state of mind, for instance intent – the classic “malice aforethought,” – in the case of murder. Besides, the term “unlawful act” draws attention to the difference between legal and moral 1 2 The English Crime Play in the Twentieth Century wrong. A traffic violation may be illegal, though not immoral, while lying or adultery may be immoral but not illegal unless defined as such by the laws of the country. The fact that a crime is considered “an offence against the public” and “liable to legal punishment” differentiates criminal law from civil law. In civil law, a specific person has been offended and the remedy for such an offence is not punishment but compensation. As the above definition of “crime” suggests, this study will not be primar- ily concerned with moral wrong, with questions of guilt, responsibility – or Sin – but largely with the aspect of illegality and the threat of punishment resulting from it.