We recently saw The Body Snatcher production at the Alley Theater (Houston) based on a short story by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Marketed as a Halloween kind of story, it harkens back to a time in England turn of the 19th century England where medical cadavers where in short supply and a preeminent Dr professor is desperate to save his daughter who has a congenital heart condition, just like her mother who died of the same condition. Based on some early organ transplant results, he needs a freshly deceased young woman who he can precure a heart from. How about this murderess who’s about to be hanged? It starts slow, but energizes greatly in the second act. Good in-character portrayals especially the hired grave robber, and murderess, but overall it does not strike me as goulish or spooky, but entertaining drama with some love mixed in.
