The Taxidermist's Daughter: This is the verdict of the arts critics of the national press

Posy Sterling as Mary Christie & Daisy Prosper as Connie Gifford in The Taxidermist’s Daughter photo by Ellie Kurttz

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The Taxidermist’s Daughter, a Gothic mystery set in and around Chichester, has opened the 60th anniversary season at Chichester Festival Theatre in a world premiere written by Cicestrian Kate Mosse. Here's what the critics think...

The play

1912. In the isolated Blackthorn House on Sussex’s Fishbourne Marshes, Connie Gifford lives with her father. His Museum of Avian Taxidermy was once legendary, but since its closure Gifford has become a broken man, taking refuge in the bottle.

Robbed of her childhood memories by a mysterious accident, Connie 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, inexplicably, disappeared.

The verdicts

Chichester Observer: "It’s difficult to remember a more gripping start to a Chichester Festival Theatre summer. This year’s 60th anniversary at the CFT demanded a striking work to kick off the celebrations – and it gets precisely that with Chichester author Kate Mosse’s stage adaptation of her own 2014 novel The Taxidermist’s Daughter."

Read full review here - https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/people/taxidermists-daughter-offers-thrilling-start-to-chichester-festival-theatres-60th-anniversary-3660102

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The Stage: "A striking but over-stuffed adaptation of Kate Mosse’s gothic story of bloody revenge"

Read full review here - https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-taxidermists-daughter-kate-mosse-review-at-chichester-festival-theatre

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The Times: "Kate Mosse’s gothic novel turns into a muddled night out"

Read full review here - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-taxidermists-daughter-review-kate-mosses-gothic-novel-turns-into-a-muddled-night-out-mc6dsp5vb

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https://everything-theatre.co.uk/: "The production neatly treads the line between suggestive and visible gore. Though some viewers might find later scenes a bit much, I felt it was tastefully done; to be fair, you can’t expect a play about taxidermy and trauma to be completely sanitised"

Read full review here - https://everything-theatre.co.uk/2022/04/review-the-taxidermists-daughter-chichester-festival-theatre.html

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The Guardian: "Mosse’s adaptation of her blood-soaked novel delivers on chills but could do with more substance amid the sound and fury."

Read full review here - https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/apr/20/the-taxidermists-daughter-review-chichester-festival-theatre-kate-mosse

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The Daily Telegraph: "This adaptation of Kate Mosse’s grisly murder yarn is visually stunning but mistakenly tries to be both gothic mystery and revenge thriller."

Read full review here - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/taxidermists-daughter-review-macabre-mystery-stuffed-over-ambition/

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