Blood Relations – The story of Lizzie Borden

The intimate Pinkerton theater at Venice Theatre transforms into the suffocating 1892 household of the Borden family. Rather than presenting a simple historical reenactment, this production of Blood Relations uses a play-within-a-play framework set a decade after the notorious ax murders. Lizzie Borden and her visiting friend, an actress, swap identities to recreate the events leading up to the brutal deaths of her father and stepmother. The script peels back the layers of Victorian repression and financial manipulation that trapped the women of the house. Through this shifting, theatrical interrogation, the mystery of whether the acquitted woman actually swung the blade remains a shifting psychological puzzle.