"Personally, I think it's...right under our noses."

Lamb to the Slaughter Short story by Roald Dahl

For my final project I would like to adapt “Lamb to the Slaughter” a short story by Roald Dahl. This is the story of Mary Maloney who, after being told by her husband Patrick that he wants to divorce her, kills him by hitting him over the head with the frozen leg of a lamb. When she realizes what she has done Mary becomes worried as she is pregnant in the sixth month and is afraid what may happen to her child. She thus goes to the grocery store as if nothing has happened, and when she returns pretends to find her dead husband in the living room. Mary calls the police. One of the men, Jack Noonan, she knows as her husband was police officer and Jacks college. Along with Jack come a doctor, a police photographer, a forensic scientist and two detectives. They try to determine and find the murder weapon while the lamb leg is slowly cooking in the kitchen. Noticing that, Mary offers it to the police men arguing in honor of her husband, who would have wanted her to offer the guest something, they should finish it. As they are hungry and don’t want to upset the newly widowed woman the police eat the lamb, all the while discussing what the murder weapon may be, and that it is probably right under their noses. This causes Mary Maloney to laugh in the other room, and the story ends.

I like this short story as it contains plenty of black humor. It is short enough to be staged completely, and one can shorten the character list to five actors (see below). Two settings would be needed for the three scenes: the Maloney’s house, and the grocery store. This way the setting isn’t too complicated. To adapt this, one would need to turn the story (which can be found with the link below) into a script first. In order to give an equal amount of lines to all the actors it may be necessary to shorten some, and lengthen other parts of the story. I would need five actors for this story, one of which must be a women, and one if not two should be a man or played as such.

Character List:

Mary Maloney

Patrick Maloney

Sam from the Grocery store

Jack Noonan (Policeman)

Doctor

two detectives

police photographer

a man who knew about fingerprints

Actors:

Actor 1:    Mary Maloney

Actor 2:    Patrick Maloney

Actor 3:    Sam from the Grocery store, detective 1

Actor 4:    Jack Noonan (Policeman)

Actor 5:    Doctor, police photographer, a man who knew about fingerprints

Scenes:

Maloney Home

1. Mary ENTERS
2. Patrick ENTERS
3. Mary EXITS to get the lamb
4. Mary ENTERS and kills Patrick
5. All EXIT

Grocery Store

1. Sam ENTERS during blackout
2. Mary ENTERS
3. All EXIT

Maloney Home

1. Patrick ENTERS during blackout (dead body)
2. Mary ENTERS
3. Doctor/police photographer/a man who knew about fingerprints + Jack Noonan + detective ENTER

Link to the Story:

http://www.depa.univ-paris8.fr/IMG/pdf/lamb_to_the_slaughter_by_roald_dahl-2.pdf