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A startling new musical adaptation of the classic French novel 
Thérèse Raquin...by Èmile Zola

Adapted by Nona Shepphard
Music by Craig Adams
Book & Lyrics by Nona Shepphard

1860s Paris. In a small dusty haberdasher’s shop near the Seine in the dank, narrow Passage du Pont Neuf, the young and beautiful Thérèse Raquin is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. While her husband is out all day working, Thérèse spends her days confined behind the counter of a small shop and - every Thursday evening - watching her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin, play dominoes with an eclectic group of ne'er-do-wells. Until the Thursday evening that her husband Camille brings an old friend to the party – the alluring Laurent – and she embarks on an illicit affair that leads Thérèse to abandon all her inhibitions and loyalties as their brutal and overwhelming passion overturns both their lives and has results that nobody could have foreseen... In keeping with the innovative and challenging nature of the original work, this radical new musical adaptation uses music and lyrics to heighten and distil the underlying themes, featuring a company of twelve actors playing the main roles of Thérèse, Laurent, Camille and Madame Raquin, as well as their Thursday night domino playing companions and a watchful and distrustful chorus.

  Evening standard             Independant           

   Daily Telegraph               Broadway Baby      

 West End Frame              Everything Theatre

1. SANG ET NERFS / AT THE END.
   Company
2. SNUGGY LITTLE HOUSE
   Madame and Camille
3. HAVING A FIT
   Camille and Madame
4. SNUGGY LITTLE HOUSE 2
   Madame
5. THE PASSAGE
   Chorus, Camille and Madame
6. YOU ARE NOT STILL, THERESE
   Oarsman, Chorus, Madame and Camille
7. THURSDAY NIGHTS
   Oarsman, Grivet, Michaud, Olivier, Suzanne, Camille, Madame, Laurent and Company
8. YOU ARE NOT QUIET, THERESE
   Oarsman, Madame, Laurent, Camille, Grivet and Company
9. MAY AS WELL AND WHY NOT
   Laurent, Madame and Camille
10. A BRUTAL BEGINNING
    Laurent, Therese and Chorus
11. I BREATHE YOU IN
    Therese, Laurent and Madame
12. AN ULTIMATUM
    Camille, Laurent, Grivet, Therese and Chorus
13. A SUNDAY STROLL
    Camille, Laurent, Therese and Company

1. THE STREAM
   River Women, Oarsman, Company
2. A SUNDAY TRAGEDY
   Oarsman
3. WHO KNOWS?
   Chorus and Laurent
4. SWEET PERFUME OF VIOLETS
   Laurent and Chorus
5. THE PASSAGE
   Madame, Therese and Laurent
6. THURSDAY NIGHTS 2
   Company, Oarsman, Michaud, Grivet, Suzanne, Madame, Laurent and Therese
7. A QUIET WEDDING
   Chorus, Therese and Laurent
8. A BRIDAL BED
   Therese, Laurent and Madame
9. A SNUGGY OLD AGE
   Madame, Laurent, Therese and River Women
10. THE AVENGING HAND
    Michaud, Grivet, Olivier, Suzanne, Oarsman, Madame and Company
11. SANG ET NERFS
    Company
12. IF I HAD KNOWN
    Therese, Laurent and Company
13. AT THE END
    Chorus

Reviews

"Good Lord! Will Park Theatre ever stage a bad show? If the latest offering of Theatre Bench’s new adaptation of Emile Zola’s turn-of-the-century classic, Thérése Raquin is anything to go by, probably not. A dark and pulsating musical set in Victorian Paris, the show follows the repressed Thérése as she breaks out from her dull little life and embarks on a passionate affair that eventually leads to her downfall."
★ ★ ★ ★ â˜… West End Wilma 

“An intense and accomplished take on Emile Zola’s tightly wound 1867 novel of adultery and damnation in Paris.”
★ ★ ★ ★ Evening Standard  

“Visceral, darkly imaginative… Craig Adams's complex, eloquent score pulls you in with the bold unpredictability of its questing melodic lines and twisted harmonic textures.”
★ ★ ★ ★ Independent

“Shepphard directs her own adaptation with exhilarating precision, building the tension between the genteel constraint of Mme Raquin’s “snuggy little home” and the violent passions it contains to a pitch of unbearable intensity… Zola would approve.”
★ ★ ★ ★ Daily Telegraph

“..adapted for the stage with economical precision by Nona Shepphard, and given a score of insinuating musical breadth that allows the compacted, conflicting emotions within the story to sing… A genuinely original, one-of-a-kind British musical.”
The Stage