A true-crime story about a French woman accused of poisoning her husband in 1840 will be told in the form of a radio play in Chilliwack.
The Chilliwack Players Guild presents French Poison, its fifth staged radio play, at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Jan. 18. Written more than 70 years ago, it'll be the first time the play has ever been heard.
Director Astrid Beugeling called it a “fascinating” story about Marie Lafarge (nee Capelle) whose husband Charles Lafarge died five months after they got married. Charles, who conveyed himself to be a wealthy iron master, convinced Marie to marry him. After arriving at his Le Grandier Estate, she found it had all been a lie and that Charles was bankrupt. The estate was in complete disrepair and infested with rats.
“It became a huge scandal in France because she was accused of poisoning her husband,” Beugeling said.
People followed Marie's trial through daily newspaper reports.
“She was charged and she became the most famous woman in Europe at that time. All of France was divided. Half of France believed she was innocent, half believed she was guilty.”
Another intriguing fact about the story is Marie was the first person convicted largely on direct forensic toxicological evidence. The Marsh test was used during the trial which detects arsenic levels, said Ed Stone.
Ed is the son of Austin Stone, a crime novelist and BBC playwright from 1936 to 1955 who wrote French Poison.
When Austin died in 1979, a large box of paperwork was given to one of his sons. That son died in 1987 and 16 years later, the box was handed over to Ed, who put it in his basement and forgot about it until 2014 when he was working on his family tree. When Ed opened up the box in search of his father’s birth certificate, amid notes and letters, he found two unpublished book manuscripts and nine radio play scripts his father had written.
The radio plays are all based on true-crime stories.
The Chilliwack Players Guild got approval from its board of directors to present five of the nine radio plays: An Affair of Honour in 2019, A Pearl in the Hand in 2020, Mystery in Pimlico in 2023, and The Gallows Does Well in 2024. There's a chance they will present the other four plays at a later time.
Unlike the other radio plays that were aired on BBC (and one that was presented via ChillTV), French Poison is the only one that has never been performed. It was submitted to the BBC in 1954, but due to run time of an hour and 15 minutes, it was turned down as their maximum time was one hour.
“This will be the first time ever that this particular play has ever been heard or seen, since it was written 71 years ago,” Ed said of French Poison. “People relate to radio. This is the sad thing, we don’t hear much of this type of radio.”
There's not a lot visually in the staged radio play. Although the actors will be wearing costumes, and there will be images projected on a screen behind them, the actors sit in a row facing the audience. When it's their turn, they come up to a microphone to deliver their lines, reading directly from the script book in their hand.
Behind the cast is sound folio artist Dave Stephen. He will have props set up on a table to make live sounds like the crinkling of newsprint, opening and closing of a door, a person walking, and glasses clinking.
Beugeling added that "some people just close their eyes and listen.”
Many of their repeat audience members are older adults who used to listen to radio plays when they were young. They have had visually impaired people in the audience in the past who gave them great feedback.
“That really encouraged us to work with (the plays) even further,” Ed said.
The play will also have live piano music written and performed by Judy Hill.
French Poison has a cast of 13, and more than half are brand-new guild members. Another 20 people make up the production team. The radio play is about and hour and 10 minutes long, and coffee, tea and snacks will be served.
The Chilliwack Players Guild presents radio play French Poison by Austin Stone on Saturday, Jan. 18 for two shows in the Rotary Hall Studio Theatre at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre. Show times are 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre, online at chilliwackculturalcentre.ca, or by calling 604-391-SHOW.
