Second Death of a Mad Wife

by Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos

FULL LENGTH (85 minutes) - Whatever happened to Jack the Ripper’s wife? Bunny Maybrick began life in an opulent Alabama mansion and is ending it in a squalid shack full of cats in rural Connecticut. She’s already given away most of her meager belongings, but the heavy contents of her soul are harder to leave behind. That is, until a local prep school boy, Theo Voss, becomes an accomplice in Bunny’s meandering...

FULL LENGTH (85 minutes) - Whatever happened to Jack the Ripper’s wife? Bunny Maybrick began life in an opulent Alabama mansion and is ending it in a squalid shack full of cats in rural Connecticut. She’s already given away most of her meager belongings, but the heavy contents of her soul are harder to leave behind. That is, until a local prep school boy, Theo Voss, becomes an accomplice in Bunny’s meandering, mad, death-bed confession – one that includes adultery, arsenic addiction, and murder.

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Second Death of a Mad Wife

Recommended by

  • Nora Louise Syran: Second Death of a Mad Wife

    An original tale and authorial voice that twists together threads of a past full of mystery and intrigue which will draw in an audience and keep them riveted until the play's beautifully cyclical conclusion: the emptying of secrets like a "sack of dead cats." I adore stories that span the passage of time and focus on the female. The playwright's theatrical use of imagery, sound effects, motifs ("You told me"), foreshadowing, breaking of a fourth wall of madness are stunning. I'd love to see this on the stage.

    An original tale and authorial voice that twists together threads of a past full of mystery and intrigue which will draw in an audience and keep them riveted until the play's beautifully cyclical conclusion: the emptying of secrets like a "sack of dead cats." I adore stories that span the passage of time and focus on the female. The playwright's theatrical use of imagery, sound effects, motifs ("You told me"), foreshadowing, breaking of a fourth wall of madness are stunning. I'd love to see this on the stage.

  • Jillian Blevins: Second Death of a Mad Wife

    Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos offers us a well-constructed, wildly theatrical puzzle: the perfect kind, not too easy to solve, with just enough clues to keep driving us to figure it out. And of course, once all the pieces slide into place, the picture right there in front of us, it seems so clear all along.

    With echoes of Williams, Dickens, and Doyle (plus a lurid Penny Dreadful or two) SDOAMW will satisfy history and literature lovers; but you needn’t have an interest in Victorian serial killers or the Southern Gothic to be intrigued by this feverish mystery.

    Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos offers us a well-constructed, wildly theatrical puzzle: the perfect kind, not too easy to solve, with just enough clues to keep driving us to figure it out. And of course, once all the pieces slide into place, the picture right there in front of us, it seems so clear all along.

    With echoes of Williams, Dickens, and Doyle (plus a lurid Penny Dreadful or two) SDOAMW will satisfy history and literature lovers; but you needn’t have an interest in Victorian serial killers or the Southern Gothic to be intrigued by this feverish mystery.

  • Doug DeVita: Second Death of a Mad Wife

    Holy Shit! Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos has written a wonderfully creepy and surreal “Northeastern Southern Gothic Noir,” her wildly theatrical sense of the absurd firing on all cylinders here. And in “FLORENCE “BUNNY” MAYBRICK aka MISS CHANDLER” she has given us a fabulously worthy heiress to all those fabulously eccentric heroines Tennessee Williams (with a slight nod to Giraudoux) made so irresistible to actresses (and actors) as well as audiences; I so want to see this performed!

    Holy Shit! Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos has written a wonderfully creepy and surreal “Northeastern Southern Gothic Noir,” her wildly theatrical sense of the absurd firing on all cylinders here. And in “FLORENCE “BUNNY” MAYBRICK aka MISS CHANDLER” she has given us a fabulously worthy heiress to all those fabulously eccentric heroines Tennessee Williams (with a slight nod to Giraudoux) made so irresistible to actresses (and actors) as well as audiences; I so want to see this performed!

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Character Information

The role of THE UNFORTUNATE DEAD may be played by one or five actors.
  • FLORENCE “BUNNY” MAYBRICK aka MISS CHANDLER
    An elderly, impoverished, tormented recluse with a fractured memory. She’s trying to slip from this life without her past following. She wears a once-fine but now worn lace dress. American Southern.
    Character Age
    Mature/elderly
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • THEO VOSS
    A troubled schoolboy with a more troubling fascination for Miss Chandler. He wears a school uniform. Young man. American.
    Character Age
    Late teens
    Character Gender Identity
    Male
  • THE LOVER
    Bunny’s impossibly romantic, terribly shallow, self-serving lover in lust with his best friend’s wife. He wears a tuxedo. Charming and attractive. British.
    Character Age
    30s
  • THE OTHER WIFE
    Bunny’s husband’s secret, common-law wife. Resigned and pragmatic, she wants to ally with Bunny. She wears a bland and simple grey striped dress. Working class British.
    Character Age
    40s
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • THE BROTHER
    Bunny’s brother-in-law. Arrogant, devious, and rather excitable, he wants to expose Bunny. He wears a grey suit. British.
    Character Age
    40s-50s
    Character Gender Identity
    Male
  • THE BARONESS
    Bunny’s mother. Brassy and flirtatious, she defends Bunny. A formidable woman who dresses elegantly in orange brocade. American Southern.
    Character Age
    40s-50s
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • THE UNFORTUNATE DEAD
    *This role may be cast with either one or five actors.* A combination of Jack the Ripper’s victims. They want Bunny to exact revenge on their behalf. They wear mostly red with Victorian-style patchwork velvet and satin. Skittish and unpredictable. Working class British, Irish and Swedish.
    Character Age
    20s-40s
    Character Gender Identity
    Female

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization Clay & Water, Year 2020
  • Type Reading, Organization Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, Year 2019

Production History

Awards

  • Waterworks 2024 Festival Finalist
    Live Arts
    Finalist
    2024