Produced by Georgia Young, Tiffany Vergon, Charles

Aldarondo, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed
Proofreaders Team

EMLYN WILLIAMS

NIGHT MUST FALL

A PLAY IN THREE ACTS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE PERFORMING RIGHTS OF THIS PLAY ARE FULLY PROTECTED, AND PERMISSIONTO PERFORM IT, WHETHER BY AMATEURS OR PROFESSIONALS, MUST BE GAINED INADVANCE FROM THE AUTHOR'S SOLE AGENT, WALTER PEACOCK, 60 HAYMARKET,LONDON, S.W. I.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE VAN REES PRESS

EH

To M. W.

THE CHARACTERS

(in the order of their appearance)

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE
MRS. BRAMSON
OLIVIA GRAYNE Her niece
HUBERT LAURIE
NURSE LIBBY
MRS. TERENCE Mrs. Bramson's cook
DORA PARKOE Her maid
INSPECTOR BELSIZE
DAN

BEFORE THE PLAY

The Court of Criminal Appeal

The action of the play takes place in the sitting-room of ForestCorner, Mrs. Bramson's bungalow in Essex.

The time is the present.

ACT I: A morning in October.

ACT II SCENE I: An afternoon twelve days later. SCENE II: Lateafternoon, two days later.

ACT III SCENE I: Half an hour later. Nightfall. SCENE II: Half an hourlater.

BEFORE THE PLAY

The orchestra plays light tunes until the house lights are turneddown; the curtain rises in darkness, accompanied by solemn music. Asmall light grows in the middle of the stage, and shows the LORDCHIEF JUSTICE sitting in judgment, wearing wig and red robes ofoffice, in the Court of Criminal Appeal. His voice, cold anddisapproving, gradually swells up with the light as he reaches hisperoration.

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE: … and there is no need to recapitulate here thearguments for and against this point of law, which we heard in the longand extremely fair summing up at the trial of the appellant at theCentral Criminal Court. The case was clearly put to the jury; and it isagainst sentence of death for these two murders that the prisoner nowappeals. Which means that the last stage of this important andextremely horrible case has now been reached. On a later page in thesumming up, the learned judge said this … (turning overpapers) … "This case has, through the demeanour of the prisonerin the witness-box, obtained the most widespread and scandalouspublicity, which I would beg you most earnestly, members of the jury,to forget." I cannot help thinking that the deplorable atmosphere ofsentimental melodrama which has pervaded this trial has made thetheatre a more fitting background for it than a court of law;but we are in a court of law, nevertheless, and the facts have beenplaced before the court. A remarkable and in my opinion praiseworthyfeature of the case has been that the sanity of the prisoner has neverbeen called into question; and, like the learned judge, the Court mustdismiss as mischievous pretence the attitude of this young man whostands convicted of two brutal murders in cold blood. This case has,from beginning to end, exhibited no feature calling for sympathy; theevidence has on every point been conclusive, and on this evidence thejury have convicted the appellant. In the opinion of the Court there isno reason to interfere with that conviction, and this appeal must bedismissed.

The chords of solemn music are heard again