Kate Mosse on the Taxidermist’s Daughter

The writer answers some questions from director and cast of the play as Southwick Players hit the boards with this dark and thrilling production…

As I was recently interviewing the brilliant Kate Mosse about her new book, Map of Bones, I managed to sneak in some chat about the Taxidermist’s Daughter too, as Sussex-based theatre company Southwick Players are presenting this.

Not only did Kate talk to me in some detail about the play and how she open-handedly shares the content, she also answered some of the questions put to me by the director and cast members…

First of all, she’s always thrilled when someone puts on the Taxidermist’s Daughter

Mosse purposely made it accessible for smaller companies, sharing it without a huge license fee. She’s also extremely easy-going when it comes to adaptations. There aren’t a huge number of writers who are as generous as this, I suggest.

“I made a decision that I would make the play available to amateur companies free of charge so that lots of companies could do the show,” she explains. “Not just that, but there’s a lot of parts for women. And so it was a deliberate decision to make it available without charging people money, or just a tiny amount, so nobody would ever be prevented from doing it for financial reasons.

“You know, people get confused. They think professional/amateur, the amateur means not very good. That’s not true at all.

“There are lots of people who are brilliant actors. But for whatever reason, that wasn’t their career. And they’re doing it, you know, so I feel that individual theatre companies know what works for them, who they’ve got.

“And so therefore, if they need to make cuts or amendments, I give permission for that: they always ask. You know, I get a message saying they’d like to cut this scene, or could they do this? And I always go, absolutely. Because I think each new production is its own work of art.

“And I provided the blueprint for it, but I’m very happy for people to make it theirs; to take ownership of it.”

Read more: Andrew Kay on becoming a playwright

I mention that I have some questions from the company, which she’s excited by

We kick off with one from director Robb Tremayne. My biggest question for her, he says, is how difficult was it turning a much-loved novel into a play? What did you have to sacrifice to create the gripping story that we have?

“Well, firstly, thank the director for that lovely question,” grins Mosse. “And tell him it was really hard! Because everything that I thought mattered about the story, I put in the novel.

“But of course, on stage, it’s too complicated. You cannot have all of those things. So I suppose the biggest thing that had to be sacrificed was the real life inspiration for the story, which was Walter Potter’s Museum of Taxidermy, that started off in Bramber [in 1850], not far from Southwick.

I suppose the biggest thing that had to be sacrificed was the real life inspiration for the story, which was Walter Potter’s Museum of Taxidermy

“The museum moved in the ‘70s to Arundel, which is quite near where I am in Chichester. And it was a place that I went, through all of my childhood in the ‘60s and ‘70s. That’s where we went for trips, you know, and I was obsessed with that museum. And that was a big part of the story. But that all had to be sacrificed.

“And I think, you know, if I was writing the play again, I would probably streamline the beginning a bit more. I think that for people who’ve read the novel, it all makes sense. I think if you haven’t read the novel, probably it’s a bit… it takes a while to understand who’s who. But it was a big challenge.

“And the thing that people don’t realise is that a long play, which The Taxidermist’s Daughter is, is about 20,000 words. My novels are 100,000 words.”

I mention that one of the actors, Frank Horsley, who actually plays ‘the taxidermist’, Crowley Gifford, had wanted to know more about the museum specifically too. Mosse smiles.

“You could say to him, if he goes online, I wrote a lot about Potter’s Museum. So there’s a lot of journalism that came out around 2013, ‘14, when I wrote the novel. So if he goes online, he’ll find a lot of that, that he will find helpful.”

Cassie in the play is quite different to Cassie in the book…

Back to director Robb again, who wanted to know: “In the book Cassie is quite a silent character, in the play she has some of the best lines! Was it difficult turning her from quite a static quiet character into wonderful role we have in our play?” Mosse is thrilled by this question.

“That’s, that’s exactly the key… that Cassie is, in the novel, there is a suggestion, is she real, even? You know, she’s glimpsed in the distance.

“And we are entirely inside her own head, which we can be, because she’s suffered an enormous trauma, and is living a life that is only half a life because of it. So we are inside her head, rather than… she’s not a living, breathing person, in a way.

“That was one of the biggest decisions that I had to make; was the heart of the play going to be the taxidermist and his daughter? Or was it going to be Connie and Cassie? And in the end, I decided it had to be Connie and Cassie.

“And so writing her… in a way it was very liberating writing Cassie, because almost everything that she says is new work. Because, of course, she’s not speaking to anybody in the novel. So actually, I really enjoyed it.

“And one of the things that to tell the director and the company, which has been a source of great pleasure to me, is that I have discovered that Cassie’s final speech, which I must say I am really proud of, you know… how real, you know, how do women live in this world when the men who are supposed to protect them are the ones that they should be… it’s a really barnstorming speech.

Because quite often, there aren’t great speeches for young women to give, as people don’t always write for young women

“And it every night, you could hear a pin drop in the theatre when the first professional production was done. It’s now one of the top 10 audition pieces for girls applying to drama schools.

“Isn’t that amazing? And I’ve been told that by a couple of people who work in drama school saying this speech keeps coming up. And I’m really thrilled about that. Because quite often, there aren’t great speeches for young women to give as, because, you know, people don’t always write for young women.”

I’m running out of time on my interview and need to delve back into Kate’s new book again, but I just take a moment to invite her to the show. She looks genuinely disappointed but can’t be there. The book tour is about to hit the road, and her next free night is not for weeks!

She has one final say on the responsibility of the theatre company taking on her work as a writer:

“[as the writer], you have to learn that your only job is to give great dialogue for the characters to say. The rest of it is up to the director, the lighting designer, the props, the costume, and the actors themselves.”

Break a leg, Southwick Players!

Tickets for The Taxidermist’s Daughter can be found HERE. Show runs from 2 – 5 October 2024