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The Benders is based on a true story about the first U.S. serial killers, who operated in the decade after the Civil War. The Benders staked a claim in Osage Township (now Cherryvale), Kansas in 1870, after the U.S. government moved the Osage Nation off their land to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). The family opened a rustic inn, near the Osage Trail, which was relatively well-traveled by settlers coming west. The inn was the human equivalent of a roach motel: you could check in, but never check out. The Benders murdered at least a dozen of their guests, burying them in the orchard next to the inn, before they were found out. Once the authorities started investigating, it turned out the Benders weren’t really a family at all; there were only pretending to be because it suited their purposes. The Bender men escaped. The Bender women were brought to trial, amid a lot of media hoopla, and were acquitted.
The play has four major characters: John Bender, Sr.; Mrs. Bender, Kate, and John, Jr., and two additional actors (one female, one male) to play the other roles (victims, members of law enforcement, etc.). The major characters all give way to the darkest and most violent parts of themselves; they are writhing ids, but simultaneously possess the ability to “seduce,” one way or another, their victims, and justify their motives to themselves and one another.
Download a PDF sample scene.
| Actors: Three women, three men.
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