Season 45 Play 3 – Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Jeffrey Archer
Directed by
Cast
Clerk of the Court – Jay Robinson
Mr. Justice Tredwell – John Goldsborough
Anthony Blair-Booth QC – lain Williamson
Det. Inspector Travers – lan Noble
Sir David Metcalfe QC – Gordon Sugden
Prison Officer – lan Robinson
Mrs Rogers – Mavis Walsh
Dr. Weeden – Jack Hargreaves
Lionel Hamilton – Barrie Jarvis
Mr Cole (Junior Counsel for the Crown) – Hamlet Mejloumian
Robert Pierson (Junior Counsel with Sir David) – Gordon Lakin
Stenographers – Vicky Vigrass, Anne White
Lady Metcalfe – Jenny Reavill
People in Public Gallery – Howard Hanson, Simon Breen
Synopsis
Did Sir David Metcalfe, QC, ruthlessly murder his wife to save his own career or was her death an accident happening during moments of confusion and distress? You, the jury, must decide between the two conflicting portaits of him painted in this compelling play.
Directors Notes
“It’s more than a courtroom drama, it’s a compelling love story and it’s got the lot! Laughter, tears, and tension quoted T.V. am., not always a reliable source of criticism. However in this case, and I use the word “case” deliberately, I couldnt agree more heartily with them.
It is difficult to comment on “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” without “giving away’ too much, and thereby spoiling the tension which is built up during the course of the play.
However I can safely comment that this drama tells very successfully the same story from two entirely different points of view, and that one finds oneself believing in each point of view at the time of listening to it.
Geoffrey Archer has applied this technique very successfully in some of his other writings.
You as the jury will no doubt have reached your own conclusions by the end of Act I. Guilty? or Not Guilty? I wonder if you will still think the same way at the end of Act Il?
