Daphne

Written by Rosie Race.

Based on the enigmatic life of Daphne du Maurier, Daphne is an arresting, funny and darkly magical portrait of a woman on trial who would rather be found guilty than share her secrets. Captivated by the landscapes of the South West, they became the inspiration for many of her most famous gothic novels, which have been brought to life numerous times on stage and screen, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca and The Birds.

Daphne is accused of plagiarism, for stealing her most famous novel, Rebecca. The courtroom dissolves and time fractures as witnesses become the ghosts of her past; her lovers, her characters, and the many selves she has spent a lifetime avoiding. Confronting her most complicated desires and fluid identity, she is dragged into a storm of memory: the walls of the court give way to the wild Cornish sea, where she sets sail once more for Menabilly, her beloved home near Fowey that shaped her life and literature, desperate to reach it before the tide – or her past – pulls her under.

A haunting voyage into passion, obsession, and the question that lingers within us all… who are we when no-one is watching?