Postmortem

by Ken Ludwig

Thriller

Characters: 4 male, 4 female

Interior Set

Actor manager and playwright William Gillette, best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in his hugely successful adaptation of Conan Doyle a popular play available from Samuel French, has invited his sister and the cast of his latest revival of the play for a weekend at his magnificent pseudo medieval castle on a bluff overlooking the Connecticut River. For entertainment Gillette has arranged a seance. Now the scene is set for his greatest role. Someone is trying to murder William Gillette and he suspects it is one of his guests. Intrepid, eccentric Gillette plans to solve the case himself a la Sherlock Holmes.

"Zestfully trots out all the classic murder mystery devices: shots in the dark and darkly held secrets, deathbed letters, guns and knives and bottles bashed over the head, ghosts and hiders behind curtains and misbegotten suspicions. There are moments when you'll jump. Guaranteed."- The Telegraph

"A Sherlock Holmes whodunnit kind of mystery packed with suspects and tinged with suspense and laughter."-London Times

Genres: Plays

138 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

KEN LUDWIG is an internationally-acclaimed playwright whose work has been performed in more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. He has had 6 shows on Broadway and 6 in the West End. He has won two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards, the Edgar Award, the SETC Distinguished Career Award, the Edwin Forrest Award for Services to the Theatre and he is a McCarter/Sallie B. Goodman Fellow. His plays have been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Bristol Old Vic. His first play on Broadway, Lend Me A Tenor, won three Tony Awards and the New York Times called it "one of the two great farces by a living writer." His other best-known Broadway and West End shows include Crazy For You (5 years on Broadway, Tony Award Winner for Best Musical), Moon Over Buffalo, Leading Ladies, Twentieth Century, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Game’s Afoot, The Fox on the Fairway, Midsummer/Jersey, The Three Musketeers, Treasure Island and The Beaux’ Stratagem. His plays have starred Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Lynn Redgrave, Mickey Rooney, Hal Holbrook, Dixie Carter, Tony Shalhoub, Anne Heche, Joan Collins, and Kristin Bell. His book, How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare, was published in June 2013 by Random House, and his work has been published by the Yale Review. He has degrees from Harvard, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, Haverford College and Cambridge University. For more information, please visit www.kenludwig.com

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

VERY similar to The Game’s Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays), which was written later. However, the latter is fresher, funnier, and has an ending that doesn’t seem quite as forced.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very similar to GAME'S AFOOT, so we won't repeat. Set is fancy castle living room. Very dramatic; gun shots; lots of special effects; murder onstage. Not for us.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zzzzzzzzzzz...