Theatre to look at the reality behind the myth of the killer
FROM Jack the Ripper to Ted Bundy, serial killers have a hold over our imaginations that is hard to shake off and the growing number of TV programmes about them show how many people have a morbid fascination with the criminal mind.
But, contrary to what we might like to think, those who commit multiple murder can seem perfectly normal and devoid of signs of danger.
That’s the basis of a show heading to Newcastle later this year which will see TV crime expert Emma Kenny discuss serial killers – and probably scare us all witless in the process.
The Serial Killer Next Door, which is selling tickets now for a date at Tyne Theatre & Opera House in September, will expose the veneer of normality that can conceal the darkness within and how “the truth is, sadly, that anyone can fall foul of a serial killer”.
Murder sprees hold a fascination for people and a previous touring show, The Psychology of Serial Killers, featuring a forensic expert and offering an insight into the criminal mind, has proved a hit on previous visits to the region.
This time around Emma will look at victims too.
A well-known psychological therapist and crime commentator, she has presented more than 70 crime shows which analyse heinous crimes both in the UK and in the US, exploring what makes a killer, how they tick and why some people can be born into seemingly normal families and be brought up without fear or abuse yet still choose a murderous path.
She is well known for crime shows such as Britain’s Darkest Taboos, Lady Killers and The Killer in My Family but she actually specialises in ‘victimology’ and that will be a focus of the new show.
It will look at how our inclination to think that our natural intuition would alert us to danger in the presence of a serial killer is actually a myth. And that myth is why the term ‘serial killer’ was coined, she says.
Body counts rise because everybody thinks they would not be the one to find
themselves at the hands of a murderer “because humans like to trust and serial killers use this knowledge as a weapon” says the show.
That can lead to people accepting a lift; agreeing to have dinner with an internet hook-up or finding themselves taking a shortcut with the clean-cut person who started chatting to them as they strolled home, it adds, saying: “Rare though they may be, serial killers live amongst us, move between us, are even married to us, and only by studying their behaviour can we adapt ours to give us a fighting chance of survival should they sliver into our lives”.
In The Serial killer Next Door, Emma will talk about what led to people like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Paul Knowles going on killing sprees.
She will ask what creates a serial killer and whether anything could have prevented their ‘potential’ being activated or whether they were simply born to kill.
The show will also examine how such murderers select their victims.
The Serial Killer Next Door is set to come to the Tyne Theatre on September 9. To book fo to the theatre’s website.