The Taxidermist's Daughter: Southwick Players claim national first as they prepare to bring Kate Mosse's Gothic thriller to the stage

A story of retribution and justice, The Taxidermist's Daughter is a gothic mystery set in and around Chichester, adapted for the stage by Cicestrian Kate Mosse from her best-selling novel of ten years ago.

The play premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in April 2022 and there was a student production at Rose Bruford College in Sidcup in February but Southwick Players believe they will be the first amateur company in the country to perform it when it runs at the Barn Theatre, Southwick, from October 2 to 5 inclusive.

Directed by Robert Tremayne, The Taxidermist's Daughter is Southwick Players' entry for the 2024 Brighton and Hove Arts Council Drama Festival. Tickets are available by contacting the box office on 0333 666 3366 or going to www.ticketsource.co.uk

Against a 1912 backdrop of the Fishbourne saltwater marshes, Connie Gifford lives with her father, whose museum of avian taxidermy was once legendary.

Since its closure, Gifford has become a broken man, taking refuge in the bottle, and Connie – robbed of her childhood memories by a mysterious accident – is haunted by fitful glimpses of her past.

A strange woman has been seen in the graveyard and a few miles away, at Chichester's Graylingwell asylum, two female patients have vanished.

As a major storm hits the Sussex coast, one woman seeks revenge for horrifying crimes of the past.

Kate Mosse was inspired to write her tale by 1970s childhood visits to the former Potter's Museum in Arundel, featuring, in her words, such 'gruesome, but magnificent' displays as stuffed guinea pigs playing cricket, a kittens' tea party and, most famously, a tableau of the Death and Burial of Cock Robin.

The collection, which has since disappeared from public view after being auctioned off from its last home in Cornwall, was originally based in Bramber, where the family of its creator Walter Potter ran the White Lion pub, now The Castle Inn.

Born in 1835, Potter began to experiment with taxidermy at the age of 15 and his growing collection became so popular with pub customers that it eventually expanded into the building next door, its home until the museum's closure in 1972 after the death of Potter's grandson.

The building then played host until 1989 to the World Famous House of Pipes run by Anthony Irving. It is now the garage to the privately-owned Bramber Villa.