The Heiress

In The Heiress, the year is 1850. The setting, a well-appointed parlour in New York’s Washington Square. The family, a wealthy doctor, his sister, and his daughter, a shy, tongued-tied ‘spinster’, and the heiress of the title. Theirs is a chiaroscuro world – where civility is all, and feelings, no matter how strong, are kept firmly buried. Until a young bachelor comes to visit.

The handsome Morris Townsend’s avid courtship of the love-struck Catherine strikes down all that has been holding the family in aspic, and long-held resentments and deep-seated hurts boil up to the surface. Questions and mysteries abound — why does Dr Sloper resent his daughter? Is Morris merely a fortune-hunter? Will Catherine disobey her father? — and a drama that is already taut and compelling becomes intense and explosive, with an ending that is destined to provoke a collective gasp.