Lady in the Lake: a stunning show that uses murder and mystery to explore the parallel lives of two women in 1960s Baltimore

Apple+ by Helen Piper, University of Bristol Lady in the Lake opens with a classic mystery premise: a man unceremoniously dumping a female corpse under a midnight blue sky. Less conventionally, it is narrated by the voice of Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram), the dead woman herself. In this speech, Cleo directly addresses Maddie Morgenstern (Natalie Portman), the woman who will later play investigator, for having professed to care about her, but “truth is, you came at the end of my story and turned it into your beginning.” While spiking the viewer’s interest, such an opening also challenges how tales of murder are more usually framed. When told through the activity of an investigator, a victim’s story can only be pieced together through fragments of evidence. By contrast, this drama will be all about agency, notably the agency of women constrained by the ties of family and community. An Apple Original, Lady In Lake was adapted and directed by Alma Har’el (Honey Boy), and is based on a novel by Laura Lippmann that was itself inspired by two historical murders. The action is set in Baltimore in 1966, a divided city made feverish with civil rights tensions and in which a...