SAW; Principals of Murder

For many Somervillians, students and staff, the event of Arts Week 2012 that most epitomised Somerville and everything artsy related to it was the short play, ‘Principals of Murder.’ This was loosely based on Dorothy L Sayer’s Gaudy Night; a murder mystery set in Somerville College, Harriet Vane having returned to her old college to give a talk on the ‘Principles of Murder,’ incorporating her works and her experience in Holloway, an incident that occurred in Strong Poison, the novel that introduced Harriet to Lord Peter Wimsey, who assists her after she is arrested for the murder of her fiancé. 

Adapted for Arts Week by two students who altered the plot but retained many of the key elements of Sayers’ novels, the play was a huge success. It was staged in the chapel and members of the cast sat amongst the pews to reflect the intimate nature of the story. Harriet’s return to Somerville takes an unsavoury turn when the JCR President ends up murdered but, with the help of Lord Peter Wimsey and some telephone calls, the mystery is resolved in a tense and shocking manner, the denouement shaking many audience members, particularly the women! Despite the plot changes and references to modern day issues such as the financial ‘irregularities’ of the bursar and the JCR President/ Vice-President rivalry, as well as the scandalous relationship between the Principal and the Porter, the play echoed many traditional Sayers’ techniques and phrases. Lord Peter’s musings that ‘when you know how, you know who’ and Harriet’s admittance that she would perform the traditional female role of ‘scrubbing floors very badly whilst being able to write detective novels rather well’, ensured that the ambiance of Sayers’ mysteries was sustained, and the issue of women in education brought out the liberal and independent minds of historical Somervillians like Sayers’ whose books propelled the notion of female empowerment and wit. The wit of Sayers herself resonated too with references to a fictional Vane novel, Lethal Passions in the Porters Lodge, a misogynist male tutor who asks of the ‘question’ of equality and education and a senior tutor with a pile of manuscripts that will forever remain unfinished.

The play was a fantastic combination of Somerville, old Somervillians and the arts and definitely a highlight of the week.