Inside: Edinburgh Fringe to showcase timely new drama inspired by Natascha Kampusch, Elisabeth Fritzl and Jaycee Lee Dugard

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Rosie MacPherson

Weeks after the dramatic escape of three kidnap victims in Cleveland, Ohio a new one-woman show set in a basement will put the harrowing story of a young, female abductee on stage. Inside, written by and starring Rosie MacPherson (above), will preview at the Lowry Studio in Salford and London’s Theatre 503 next month before a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

MacPherson, 27, has been writing her show for 18 months, inspired by the stories of kidnap victims Natascha Kampusch, Elisabeth Fritzl and Jaycee Lee Dugard and research by hostage psychology experts. Over the course of a tense hour, the heroine, who was abducted aged 12 on her way home from school, and has been in captivity for 12 years, discovers the door to her prison is open. Will she be able to escape?

MacPherson, who has just filmed the upcoming psychological thriller Before I Go To Sleep opposite Nicole Kidman, says: “It will be an emotional rollercoaster – with extreme highs and lows. She’s been down there for 12 years and it’s about taking the audience on a journey through the world she has created. It’s about Stockholm syndrome and it’s about survival.” Has she had to rewrite to include recent events from Cleveland? “It’s not about any one specific person. We’re still finding out information about Ohio – how they got through each day. But it’s nice to know that people are escaping, even now.”

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