WITH a career partly honed in comedy, Steve Morgan’s exploration of Jack the Ripper showed he is clearly at home in front of an audience.
Murder is becoming mainstream, as the sold out audience of this well-researched and well-presented evening showed.
During four months in 1888 the serial killer, later to be known as Jack The Ripper, murdered at least five and possibly six women in ways that became more horrifying as they went on.
Arguably the first serial killer of the mass media age, his crimes fed the national curiosity of the population.
In a police force that was over-stretched and under-manned, the murderer was able to evade the law and his identity has never been conclusively proven, with theories and conspiracies rife on the internet.
The show made use of music and lights to set the atmosphere, while there was scene setting information about the many deprivations that the populace faced and the social standing that Jack the Ripper chose his victims from.
Steve Morgan did not hold back on any of the details, telling the rapt audience of the true nature of the killings, the organs that were taken and the frenzied nature of the final act that was attributed to him.
Then as soon as they began, they ended. In 1892 the case was closed and no-one was ever charged for the murders.
It is the fact that there has been no real conclusion to the case that means it still holds fascination for people.
A show like this, which puts the victims at the centre and gives them some dignity while never shying away from the brutality of the Ripper’s crimes means that the case will always hold a fascination, as gruesome as that is.