Saucy Jack
by Sharon Pollock
Published by Blizzard Press available through Talonbooks Burnaby, BC
"Saucy Jack" info@talonbooks.com
PDF Manuscript copy available on request HC_Pollock@shaw.ca
Number of Acts: 2
Length: 100 mins
Total actors required: 4
Men: 3
Women: 1
Synopsis:
Saucy Jack pieces together the puzzle of the Whitechapel murders through the shattered fog-choked brain of James Kenneth Stephen, Cambridge tutor of the Duke of Clarence, Albert Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria and an heir to the British throne. A close relationship once existed between Stephen and Eddy, as the Duke was known. Stephen suffers from an old head injury and is in a dubious mental state. He may be the killer, Eddy s accomplice, or simply stark raving mad. In any case he has a desperate need to renew his friendship with his former student and to confirm or disprove his own fearful suspicions regarding his and Eddy's role in the Ripper murders. To achieve this end he has hired Kitty, a London actress, to assist him by impersonating each of the five victims. However a presence emerges through Kitty and her role-playing that is haunting, disturbing, and increasingly more potent. The stakes are raised with the arrival of Montague Druitt, a current friend of Eddy's. The men's friendship is severely tested which leads to duplicity, betrayal and ultimately murder. Only Kitty, with her prophecy of rough justice, remains unscathed.