Madison Lyric Stage Will Present FOUR MURDERS IN FORTY YEARS
The production, featuring Menotti’s The Medium and Poulenc’s The Human Voice, runs September 19–21.
By: A.A. Cristi Aug. 19, 2025
Madison Lyric Stage will present an original evening of suspense, music, and murder: FOUR MURDERS IN FORTY YEARS, running September 19–21 at the historic Deacon John Grave House.
The evening explores the lives of individuals who occupy the same tenement apartment over four decades, blending operatic excerpts with one-act works that chart heartbreak, betrayal, and unexpected moments of kindness. Featured are Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium and Francis Poulenc and Jean Cocteau’s La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice), both performed in English.
In The Medium, phony psychic Madame Flora manipulates her clients’ grief until a supernatural encounter spirals into murder and madness. In The Human Voice, Elle, a lonely woman, is consumed by an obsessive love that leads to her undoing.
“I wanted to explore the transitory presence of individuals in a single space, which in our production is a dirty tenement apartment, over a period of decades,” said Artistic Director Marc Deaton. “Utilizing several great operatic works, this production explores the moments that have shaped the apartment’s history, including heartbreak, betrayal, and even acts of unexpected kindness.”
The evening is conceptualized and directed by Marc Deaton with musical direction by Nathaniel Baker. The cast includes Amy Maude Helfer, Heidi Engstrom, Sarah Kennedy, Mary McCue, Emily Solo, Seamus Copland, Alison Lindsay, and Jonathan Mildner.
About Madison Lyric Stage
Madison Lyric Stage is an award-winning professional non-Equity theater company dedicated to presenting opera, musical theater, and drama to audiences across the Connecticut shoreline. Its mission is to expand participation in the arts by producing accessible, inclusive, and affordable works. The company is supported in part by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Guilford Savings Bank, The Madison Foundation, the Madison Rotary Foundation, and the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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