WELCOME TO
THE BODY SNATCHER –
PRE-SHOW
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1. ABOUT THE PLAY
A father's love for his sick daughter and her growing affection for his medical assistant create an ethical dilemma as they push medical boundaries. As the bodies stack up, the question is asked, "How deep will you dig for the one you love?"
This play is inspired by the original story The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson.
2. MEET THE AUTHORS
Katie Forgette is an actor and an author, and her work has been seen on stages across the USA. One of her other plays, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily, was also produced by the Alley in 2023. She lives in Seattle with her favorite husband, Bob, and cats Eddie Mars and Carmen Sternwood.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet, and travel writer. He is best known for the novels Treasure Island (1883) and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). He was a celebrity in his lifetime and, in 2018, he was ranked as the 26th-most-translated author in the world.
3. WHEN AND WHERE
LONDON, 1899
Locations in the play:
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A cemetery
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An anatomy lecture hall
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Dr. Noakes's study
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Dr. Noakes's laboratory
The Victorian Era
The Victorian Era lasted from 1837-1901 and was so called because of the reign of Queen Victoria. This was a time of population explosion, and conditions were dirty and crowded. However, it was also a time of huge advances in technology, medicine, and social reforms.
Queen Victoria, ca 1882
Fleet Street, London ca 1890
The operating theater at the Paris School of Medicine, 1890
Harvard medical students, early 1900s
4. GOOD TO KNOW
A fast surgeon was more valuable than a careful surgeon
Robert Liston, a famed surgeon, could amputate an arm in under 30 seconds. He believed that "operations must be set about with determination and completed rapidly." Sometimes he would even have his assistants time him.
CLEANLINESS
As you saw above, cleanliness was not the first concern for doctors. It took a long time for the simple act of hand washing to become common practice. Check out these videos for more on how doctors learned to keep themselves and their tools clean.
How we learned to clean our hands
How we learned to clean everything else
A HISTORY OF MEDICINE
In The Body Snatcher, Dr. Noakes talks a lot about various medical advances. Explore some of that history for yourself below.
Top 10 medical advances
See how many you can guess...
Click here for more on these advances.
19th century surgical instruments
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SURGICAL TIMELINE PRE -1899
6500 BC: Skulls found in France show signs of rudimentary neurosurgery.
Stone Age: The oldest known surgery is a leg amputation performed on a child on the island of Borneo around 31,000 years ago.
1550 BC: The Ebers Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical treatise, includes information on how to surgically treat crocodile bites and serious burns.
600 BC: Sushruta, an Indian doctor regarded as the “founding father of surgery,” is an innovator of plastic surgery - including rhinoplasty.
1896: The first successful open-heart surgery is performed in Germany to repair a stab wound in the muscle of the right ventricle.
1630: Wilhelm Fabry, known as “the Father of German Surgery,” is recognized as the first surgeon to employ amputation as a treatment for gangrene.
Resurrection Men
For a long time, it was illegal to study anatomy using human cadavers and, even when it was legal, those bodies were in short supply. So what did medical schools do? They bought supplies on the black market of course. So a new job, that of 'Resurrection Man,' was born. These men would dig up freshly buried bodies to sell to desperate instructors. This became such a problem that families began to guard the gravesites of their dearly departed.
*Resurrection men, or body snatchers, were different from grave robbers. Grave robbers were only interested in the things a person was buried with, and stealing those things was a felony. However, stealing bodies was only a misdemeanor, so body snatchers would strip a corpse and leave all of its belongings behind.
Burke & Hare Murders
Some resurrection men took it a step too far. In 1828 in Scotland, William Burke and William Hare decided to skip the messy business of digging up graves and just go straight to the source. They killed sixteen people and sold their bodies to a local anatomist.
Dive deeper into the historical context of this play with this activity
5. GOTHIC LITERATURE
What is it? As a genre, it is is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting - mystery and terror.
Where did it come from? “Gothic” as a term originally referred to a medieval type of architecture from the 12th century that was ornate and intricate. However, the word was not complimentary. It referred to things that were ancient and barbarous.
When was it first introduced? Its first use in literature appeared in 1764 with author Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. Walpole subtitled the novel: A Gothic Story, intending it to be a sophisticated joke to suggest that the story was an antique relic. Although fiction, he wrote it as if it were a translation of a 16th century manuscript telling of a nightmarish haunting, and thus a genre was born.
SO WHAT MAKES IT GOTHIC?
Click through the slideshow to learn more about the defining characteristics of the gothic genre.
6. WHO'S WHO
Read the descriptions below and click on each photo for the actor’s bio.
Dr. Noakes- Senior surgeon and anatomy lecturer. Dedicated to medical advancement - especially heart surgery and transplantation. Father to Elizabeth Noakes. Deeply affected by his wife Mary’s early death from a heart condition.
Key Traits:
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Passionate
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Intense
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Driven
David Rainey*
Dr. Noakes
Elizabeth Noakes- (Lizzie) Dr. Noakes’ daughter. About 20 years old. Suffers from a serious, mysterious heart condition. Attempts to conceal her illness but experiences debilitating symptoms. Desperately wants to experience the world.
Key Traits:
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Curious
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Witty
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Precocious
Alyssa Marek
Elizabeth Noakes
Dr. John Brook- A young, talented doctor and former student of Dr. Noakes who is also invested in medical progress. Willing to push boundaries, but remains concerned with morality.
Key Traits:
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Intelligent
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Rational
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Caring
Luis Quintero
Dr. John Brook
Fettes- A lower-class odd-jobs man and “resurrectionist” who digs up fresh bodies for medical research.
Key Traits:
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Enterprising
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Pragmatic
Brandon Hearnsberger
Fettes
Mrs. Keene- Housekeeper for Dr. Noakes. She aids in medical experiments and taking care of Elizabeth.
Key Traits:
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Protective
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Practical
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Loving
Carolyn Johnson
Mrs. Keene
A Young Girl- On trial for the alleged poisoning of a child. Becomes entangled in Dr. Noakes’s plans to save Elizabeth
Key Traits:
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Resourceful
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Clever
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Strong-willed
Sophia Marcelle
A Young Girl
*Resident Acting Company Member
7. YOUR PART IN THE PLAY
The show can't happen without an audience. Watch the video for some great advice on playing your part.
BONUS ACTIVITY
AUDIENCE ETIQUETTE
After watching the video, improvise scenes where you encounter the best and worst audience members. If you create something fun and want to share it, tag us at @alleytheatre on Instagram or Facebook for a chance to be featured on our social platforms.
8. POST-SHOW TALKBACK
If you and your students plan to participate in the post-show talkback, encourage them to ask questions!
