Barton Theatre Company

Ruth Ellis was a divorcee with a young child to care for. She worked in the kind of nightclubs where there was more than just a drink on offer. Ellis worked hard, played hard and dreamt of a movie star life.

On 11 April 1955, Ellis shot and murdered her lover, David Blakely, outside a Hampstead pub. She was found guilty and became the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Why was she so keen to admit her guilt, and so loath to offer any defence, even refusing to name – until too late – the person who gave her the loaded gun?

A gripping new play that takes a new look at the real woman behind the headlines and at the events that drove her to murder.