About the Play:

Winner of the highly-coveted Edgar Award (the 'Oscar' of Crime) from the Mystery Writers of America

Write Me a Murder is a classic thriller by Frederick Knott. Collaborating writers trying to develop a story of the "perfect murder" becoming star-crossed lovers, partners in crime and more. With twists and turns, clues and red herrings, the intricate plot leads to a situation where you know a murder will be committed, but how, and who will be the victim, and why? The audience has to solve the dilemma of not only who is the murderer but also who is the victim in this intricate maze of clues and crimes and cross and double cross.

Write Me a Murder concerns a professional writer's attempt to concoct an almost "perfect murder" to save his family's English estate. David Rodingham returns to his family's manor house after fifteen years absence to see his dying father. His womanizing older brother Clive, heir to Rodingham Manor, immediately confronts him with his plan for selling the estate, including the lands and village, as soon as their father has passed away in order to pursue a Texas millionaire's daughter. Although David lives an eccentric writer's life on a houseboat exiled from home, he's still committed heart and soul to the family estate. He is even more shocked when the potential buyer, Charles Sturrock, arrives with his wife Julie, an aspiring thriller writer. Charles, a shrewd, ruthless, self-made tycoon has his own secret plans for the run-down manor as well as for David Rodingham. Charles encourages his wife to befriend David as she needs some expert advice on a crime story she's submitting to a magazine writing competition. David sees Julie as the answer to his prayers. It isn't long before the two concoct the perfect crime, which is soon twisted into a reality. Full of hints, deeds, and misdeeds, the plot thickens until every twist and turn leads to an intricate maze of clues. But who is double-crossing whom? From the author of Dial M for Murder and Wait Until Dark this ingenious thriller sets forth a "perfect crime" with such diabolical cleverness that audiences will be kept guessing until the final curtain.

Write Me a Murder premiered in 1961 on Broadway at the Belasco Theater and ran for six months. The following year it opened in London at the Lyric Theatre and enjoyed a considerable run. It won Frederick Knott an Edgar Award for best mystery play from the Mystery Writers Association of America in 1962. More than sixty years later, Write Me a Murder is still performed around the world, a staple of repertory, high school, and community theatres.

Cast: 2 female, 7 male

What people say:

"…as neat a tying-up of clues, hints, deeds and misdeeds as the probing mystery fan could ask." — New York Herald-Tribune

"…assembles people a cut more interesting than the usual puppets of the species, builds steadily, amusingly and suspensefully and reaches a swift and convincing climax." — The New York Times

"…continuously interesting in the twists and curlicues of its plot." — New York Women's Wear Daily

"Write Me a Murder, by Frederick Knott, marks the Broadway spot where a superior mystery thriller may be found. In the course of a suspenseful evening, Playwright Knott shows that it takes almost as much skill to write the perfect crime as to commit it." — Time Magazine

About the Playwright:

Frederick Knott (1916-2002) was an English playwright and screenwriter known for his ingeniously complex, crime-related plots. Born in Hankow, China to English missionaries, he earned a law degree from Cambridge University. He served in the British Army from 1939 to 1946, and eventually moved to the United States. He wrote three enormously successful stage thrillers, Dial "M" for Murder, Write Me a Murder, and Wait Until Dark. They had long runs on Broadway and in the West End of London, and two were later made into films.