Her Aching Heart

A bodice-ripping musical full of gothic silliness and sapphic tomfoolery...

Grab a bonnet, lace up your corset, and prepare to swoon, as this tongue-in-cheek musical whirlwind parodies the best in bodice-ripping romance. Innocent maidens and haughty aristocrats ardently pursue each other through a tempestuous, gothic landscape, replete with murder, elopement and heaving bosoms a-plenty as two heartbroken women jump between the pages of the same bonk-busting paperback – and play all the parts between them!

“Oh what a day! Oh what a wind of hope blows through the echoing corridors of my breast! Rattling at the knobs and knockers of the doors to my dry and dusty emotions!”

Bryony Lavery’s wonderful pastiche of the Mills and Boon genre is joyfully peppered with torch songs and is revived at The Hope Theatre in a 25th Anniversary production, featuring original music by Ian Brandon (Notes From My Shelf, Big Bruvva, On Our Street) and directed by Matthew Parker; The Hope’s Off West End award-nominated Artistic Director.

“A deliciously irreverent parody of the historical romance, better known as the bonk-buster… hilarious” - The Guardian

Bryony Lavery’s plays include Her Aching Heart [Pink Paper Play of The Year,1992], A Wedding Story, Last Easter, Smoke, Dirt and More Light. Her play Frozen, commissioned by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, won the TMA Best Play Award, the Eileen Anderson Central Television Award and was then produced on Broadway where it was nominated for four Tony Awards. Stockholm, for Frantic Assembly, won the Wolff-Whiting award for Best play of 2008. Beautiful Burnout for The National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly received a Fringe First at Edinburgh, before performances in the UK, New York, Australia and New Zealand. Stage adaptations include: 101 Dalmatians [a musical] at Chichester 2014, A Christmas Carol [for Birmingham Rep/Chichester Festival Theatre], Precious Bane, The Wicked Lady, Treasure Island [National Theatre 2014-15] and Behind The Scenes At The Museum for York Theatre Royal.

Creative Team

Writer: Bryony Lavery
Director: Matthew Parker
Composer: Ian Brandon
Designer: Rachael Ryan
Lighting designer: Tom Kitney
Sound designer: Paul Freeman
Co-producer: LWL Entertainment Ltd
Associate producer: David Ralf
Assistant director: Phil Croft
Casting director: Gabriella Shimeld-Fenn