If you arrive at Bury the Hatchet expecting a reverent courtroom drama, you’ll leave with blood on your hands, bluegrass in your ears, and a wicked grin on your face. Out of the Forest Theatre’s irreverent reimagining of the Lizzie Borden murders slices through the conventions of true crime, musical theatre, and historical retelling—all in under 70 minutes. The axe? Figurative and literal. The tone? Pure theatrical whiplash. And that’s precisely the point.
This is not your grandmother’s Lizzie Borden tale. Bury the Hatchet drags the legend out of the dusty archives and into a raucous cabaret of murder, myth, and mischief. With toe-tapping folk tunes and a knowing wink at its own absurdity, the show reframes America’s most infamous parricide as both cultural obsession and feminist reclamation. It’s playful, piercing, and just the right amount of deranged: a reminder that history, like theatre, is always a performance.
True Crime, Murder Ballads, and Multirole Mayhem
Lizzie Borden, for the uninitiated, is the 19th-century Massachusetts woman long suspected—but never convicted—of hacking her father and stepmother to death. The murders, the trial, and the ensuing media circus transformed her into an American gothic icon—a figure tangled between notoriety, myth, and feminist fascination. Bury the Hatchet revisits the legend not with solemnity, but with satire, musical flair, and an ensemble whose chemistry could ignite a bonfire.
Sasha Wilson, who also wrote the show, anchors it as Lizzie, a performance that swings between fragility, fury, and eerie composure. She’s flanked by Laurence Boothman and Daniel Leopold, who rotate through a dizzying array of characters: bumbling detectives, repressed sisters, wide-eyed witnesses, even omniscient podcast-style narrators. One moment you’re in a dusty parlour in Fall River, the next you’re thrown into a Glasgow-accented interrogation scene complete with bluesy fiddle.
Yes, it’s that kind of show.
A Fringe-Sized Pressure Cooker of Brilliance and Chaos
This isn’t a polished West End package, and that’s its strength. Props misbehave, exits are occasionally misjudged, and yet the result is theatre that feels utterly alive. The chaos feeds the comedy. The comedy feeds the critique. There’s a knowingness to how the performers slip out of character to directly address the audience, poking holes in everything from courtroom biases to our obsession with true crime as entertainment.
A standout element of the show is its murder ballad and bluegrass score that feels both unsettling and toe-tapping. It’s the musical equivalent of watching a body fall while sipping sweet tea. The music does more than set the tone; it interrogates our romanticisation of violence, especially when filtered through a feminine lens.
Lizzie as Icon, the Media as Judge, and Us as the Jury
But Bury the Hatchet isn’t just clever; it’s also sharp. Beneath the jokes and jigs lies an urgent political pulse. The play unpicks how gender, class, and media spectacle shaped the Borden trial, and continues to shape the way we consume stories like hers today.
Wilson is keenly aware of what happens when women are flattened into one-dimensional villains or victims, especially when the real story—like Lizzie’s—is messier, contradictory, and unresolved. The play doesn’t aim to exonerate her or convict her. Instead, it asks: why are we still so desperate to know? Why can’t we leave her in peace? Or are we, like Lizzie’s contemporaries, just looking for a woman to burn?
Not Just A Romp—But a Reckoning
Bury the Hatchet could so easily have been a quirky musical with a killer hook. But what Out of the Forest Theatre delivers instead is something thornier, funnier, and smarter: a gothic vaudeville of the American psyche.
The show’s true feat lies in its refusal to offer resolution. There’s no clean arc, no moral verdict, no neat ending. Just a crime scene turned cabaret, a chorus of unreliable narrators, and one woman—forever suspected, never proven—dancing at the centre of it all.
Come for the axe. Stay for the harmonies. Leave wondering who we bury when we bury the hatchet.
Bury the Hatchet plays at Pleasance Dome – Queen Dome (Venue 23) until 25 August (not 12th), daily at 15:50. Tickets available at: edfringe.com
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