The Taxidermist's Daughter

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His Museum of Avian Taxidermy was once legendary, but since its closure Gifford has become a broken man, taking refuge in the bottle. The Giffords’ home, Blackthorn House, is on the edge of Fishbourne in many ways –‘We’re outside of thingshere,’ says Connie, speaking as much for the family’s societal position as for the geography. Several mysteries are packed into Mosse’s plot, which starts portentously on a clap of thunder, a strange woman intoning the folk song Who Killed Cock Robin and a letting loose of jackdaws, magpies, rooks and crows on men invited to a church in a scene reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Meanwhile, the fractured events of the past are being brought to light by a mysterious veiled woman, targeting local residents with their own secrets to hide. The accomplished director has plenty on, with a revival of Portia Coughlan at London’s Almeida Theatre, an opera in New York and several films in development.

Paul Wills’s set is a lovely puzzle of rising and sliding parts, fluidly introducing medical and museum vitrines, homes, offices and coastland.Raad Rawi’s distinguished but disconcerting Dr Woolston could have walked out of a Wilkie Collins story – as, in a sense, he has.

They gather outside the old church one the Eve of St Mark, when they believe that the ghosts of those destined to die in the coming year will materialise as the church bell tolls. She must do her work in secret – firstly, because she’s not a man, but secondly, because her father ( Forbes Masson) is unable to do the work himself, torn apart by past guilt and self-soothing with drink. The one thing that elevates the play is Paul Wills’s design, a feast for the eyes making intelligent use of every inch of the capacious stage, and working in brilliant tandem with Prema Mehta’s lighting and Sinéad Diskin’s sound.Connie (Daisy Prosper) is the titular daughter of alcoholic taxidermist Crowley Gifford (Forbes Masson). We did pre-marriage counselling, which was successful, and a chemistry test – which is essential, because if you can’t find a flow, a sense that you can collaborate, then personally I’m not interested. It’s the same story, but I realised it is a revenge play in the end, so it needed to be short and sharp, and packing a big punch. Sinéad Diskin’s sound has a vaguely Wicker Man-ish folksy menace, and Andrzej Goulding’s video impressively conjures dark, rain-lashed nights and a climactic flood. A dark but thrilling play about country superstition, power dynamics and artistry, adapted by Kate Mosse from her Gothic novel, and rightly debuting in the Sussex county where the action takes place.

It’s 9am, and the bestselling novelist and founder of the Women’s prize for fiction has travelled up to London from her home on the Sussex coast to sit in on a rehearsal of her first full-length play, staged at Chichester Festival theatre. Róisín McBrinn’s production – featuring violent moments going eyeball-to-eyeball with King Lear – is visually engulfing. Róisín McBrinn’s twilit production has some artful flourishes, but the play lacks clarity and forward momentum.The ghoulishness of stuffed, menacing birds, was offset by the charming set-pieces of hamsters and guinea pigs, sitting at desks in a tiny schoolroom, or all dressed up for a wedding. Yet, if it’s not clear how we’re going to get there, it’s always pretty obvious where we’re heading – so the denouement, when it arrives, is surprising only for the melodramatic histrionics into which McBrinn’s direction abruptly descends. In the isolated Blackthorn House on Sussex’s Fishbourne Marshes, Connie Gifford lives with her father. The closer we come to understanding the events and characters of the present, the more of her dark past is revealed, and vice versa. So when a new artistic director – Daniel Evans – arrived six years ago, with a mission that included getting the local community more involved, nothing was more natural than to invite him over for supper.

Despite it being 1912, our protagonist, the talented and intuitive Connie Gifford (an impressive Daisy Prosper), is the one making the taxidermy.The play has a large supporting cast, but its strongest support comes from Posy Sterling (as servant Mary) and Akai Osei (as errand boy Davey), who both work well together with Proper’s Connie, and add light to the proceedings. Weather is a pathetic fallacy, drivingour characters towards stormy clashes, and giving a real sense of immersion, as though the fiercely falling rain could splash the first few rows of seats. As the bodies pile up, Connie has to find the killer and solve the mystery of two women who’ve gone missing from the asylum while contending with romantic overtures from Harry who, frankly, is no match for Connie’s intellect and vivacity. I was unlucky enough to be near two audience members (shoutout to the ladies in Row F) who decided to WhatsApp their way throughthe performance; I’d have loved to fling their smartphones into the deluged Fishbourne Marshes. Mosse weaves some difficult themes into the narrative, such as the effects of sexual violence, murder and grief, and her descriptions of the marshlands of Fishbourne – where she herself grew up – are outstanding.