ToadHall Productions returns with ‘Murderess’ reprise June 17-26

ToadHall Productions of Las Cruces returns to the stage with performances of “Murderess,” by Anne Bertram, at First Christian Church, 1809 El Paseo Road.

Performances are at 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, June 17-18 and 24-25, and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 19 and 26.

Tickets are $10 regular admission and $5 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available at the door.

The cast includes Debbie Jo Felix as Laura Fair, Erin Wendorf as Margaret “Ma” Hossack, Lisa Taylor as Celia Bryan, Nancy Clein Tafoya as Jane Toppan, Autumn Gieb as Gossipy Neighbor Belle Gunness, Meghan Berver as Lizzy Borden and Nikka Ziemer as Author/Presenter.

Bertram describes the women in her play as “notorious killers from American history (who) reveal their secrets in a suite of monologues.”

“Each has a very compelling story to relate,” said ToadHall founder Ken Forestal, who is directing the play.

The most famous of the women is Lizzie Borden (1860-1927), who was charged with the August 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Fair killed her married lover in San Francisco in 1870; Hossack killed her abusive husband in Warren County, Iowa in 1900; Bryan killed her father, who was also her owner, in Jacksonville, Florida in 1848; Toppan killed at least 11 patients at two Boston hospitals and as a private nurse before she was caught in 1901; and Gunness killed at least 13 people in Illinois and Indiana 1903-08.

Toppan, nicknamed “Jolly Jane,” confessed to 31 murders and said her ambition was to kill more people than anyone else ever had.

A Norwegian by birth, Gunness buried more than a dozen murder victims, including a headless adult female, at the family farmhouse in La Porte, Indiana.
 Fair was arrested almost immediately after killing the well-respected lawyer Alexander P. Crittenden. She was so agitated at the police station following her arrest that she was given a sedative in a glass of water. Instead of drinking it, she took a bite out of the glass.

ToadHall mounted its original production of “Murderess” in early 2020, only to be interrupted by the pandemic. Some cast members from the first production are reprising their roles.

The play premiered in Minneapolis, where Bertram lives, in 2011.

Founded in 2014, ToadHall has previously presented “Pericles,” “Medea,” “Agnes of God,” “Van Gogh,” “Bonhoffer,” and “A Promise of Roses,” all directed by Forestal, who also wrote “A Promise of Roses.” The company has also produced multiple seasons of house concerts at Forestal’s home.

Contact Forestal at kmforestal@yahoo.com.