Serpent Kills

Ian C. Nelson is assistant director of libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan and président, La Troupe du Jour, Regina Summer Stage.

Serpent Kills is a cautionary tale about a serial killer, Charles
Sobhraj, his accomplice/lover, Marie, and their victims, young travelers
in southeast Asia whom they beguiled and preyed on. Marie was from
Lévis, Quebec, and at least one victim was from Manitoba. (The Canadian
connection lies also in the fact that Brooker was himself traveling in
Asia in the late 1970s when the details of this case were coming to
light. The authors note that “many of the versions of the story that
have circulated are contradictory, and Blake and I have created a
fiction that is true to itself and the spirit.”) The writing is
episodic and cinematic and as relentlessly hypnotizing as the glassy
stare of a cobra. The play has seen a number of productions world-wide
since it was created in 1989 in both a one-act version and the expanded
two-act version published here.