CODECRACKER

by Donna Latham

“Lay on, Macduff!”
Love. War. Prying eyes. A codecracker with a Shakespearean imagination faces life-and-death work and stolen credit.
Totally connected and madly in love, brainy cryptanalysts Elizebeth and William Friedman engage in secret endeavors they’re sworn not to share. With Hitler winning the war, Nazis plotting to launch a “New Germany” in South America, William slipping into despair, and J. Edgar...

“Lay on, Macduff!”
Love. War. Prying eyes. A codecracker with a Shakespearean imagination faces life-and-death work and stolen credit.
Totally connected and madly in love, brainy cryptanalysts Elizebeth and William Friedman engage in secret endeavors they’re sworn not to share. With Hitler winning the war, Nazis plotting to launch a “New Germany” in South America, William slipping into despair, and J. Edgar Hoover sabotaging Elizebeth’s work in the secret Unit 387, the center cannot hold. But it must.

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CODECRACKER

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  • Ian Thal: CODECRACKER by Donna Latham
    “

    I have long admired Donna Latham's writing, but she surpasses her previous work here. The Friedmans were not only cryptanalysts who helped win World War II, but scholars who debunked the hypothesis of Francis Bacon's authorship of Shakespeare's works. The result is a historical spy drama whose characters each have their own poetic voice, ranging from classical allusions to modernist verse.

    I have long admired Donna Latham's writing, but she surpasses her previous work here. The Friedmans were not only cryptanalysts who helped win World War II, but scholars who debunked the hypothesis of Francis Bacon's authorship of Shakespeare's works. The result is a historical spy drama whose characters each have their own poetic voice, ranging from classical allusions to modernist verse.

    ”
Characters 4 F-identifying, 3 M-identifying.
 Elizebeth: Codecracker battling secrets at work and at home; F middle-aged.
 William: Codecracker with bi-polar disorder he calls “heebeegeebees.” Elizebeth’s husband; M middle-aged.
 Sargo: Code name of Johannes Siegfried Becker, Nazi spy who gathers intelligence for a Nazi takeover of South America; M 30’s.
Vanessa: Code-cracking trainee with fiancé in 761st Tank Battalion of Patton’s Third Army: Black F 20s.
 Shirley: Code-cracking trainee with Jewish grandparents missing in Poland: F 20s.
 Hoover: Elizebeth’s nemesis who scorns and sabotages her work: M middle-aged. Also provides radio voice of Edward R. Murrow, war correspondent.
 Chorus; F; With men away at war, women play men's roles.
o FDR: Wartime President of the US.
o Mr. Smith: Elizebeth’s father who doesn’t believe in education for girls.
o Colonel Fabyan: Madman millionaire at Riverbank.
o Dr. Lerner: Psychiatrist at Walter Reed.
o Goon: Hoover’s body man.

Development History

  • Reading, JaYo Théâtre Productions, Washington, D.C., 2026
  • Reading, Atlanta Dramatists, 2025