THE QUALITY OF MERCY Comes to Edinburgh in August

Edwin Flay's psychological study of general practitioner and serial killer Dr Harold Shipman follows his final hours as he prepares to take his life.  Edwin was a patient of Shipman's as a child, and his grandmother Renee Lacey was one of Shipman's victims, aged just 63. Nominated for three Off West End awards in 2022, The Quality of Mercy draws extensively on the findings of the Smith Report to paint an unflinching portrait of a narcissistic psychopath, and interrogates society's attitudes towards death, justice and compassion. 

Alone in his cell recording a confessional tape, Shipman reflects on the choices, compulsions and fascinations that cemented his place as the most prolific serial killer in British history. From his teenage years watching his mother dying of cancer, to experiments in his earliest days as a trainee doctor, to his unassailable position as a pillar of the community, this gripping piece of investigative theatre charts Shipman's rise alongside the shocking scale of his crimes, while honouring each victim. 

Convicted of 15 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000, Shipman was ultimately found responsible for 218 deaths and died by suicide in prison in 2004. Shipman denied his guilt and never made any public statements about his actions. The Shipman Inquiry, which began in 2001 and was completed in 2005, found major flaws in the processes of death registration, prescription of drugs and monitoring of doctors and led to significant reform in these systems. 

Edwin Flay said “I wrote the play to explore my own contradictory feelings about Shipman: my grandmother was very ill and very unhappy when he took her life, and I am, in principle, pro-voluntary euthanasia; however, there was nothing altruistic in Shipman's activities, and many of his victims were in good health when he killed them. In addition to this, the play examines how our deference to authority allows evil to thrive behind the mask of respectability; how our treatment of the very worst in society reflects on our own morality; and how a professed desire for justice often hides a lust for vengeance. 

Nailed Productions is a film and theatre production company run by Edwin Flay. Their short film An Unkind Word, which Edwin wrote, produced and appeared in, won an Indie Spirit Award at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema and a Bronze Remi at Worldfest Houston. The Quality of Mercy is their first stage play and Nailed Productions' Edinburgh Fringe debut. 

Edwin Flay works as an actor, writer and producer. His acting credits include Outlander (Amazon Prime) and the BAFTA winning Suffragettes (BBC). The Quality of Mercy is Edwin's first stage play: it was nominated for the Off West End award for Best New Play, and Edwin was shortlisted for Best Solo Performance in 2022 for the play's initial run at the Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton. 

Award winning director and dramaturg Bernie C. Byrnes returns to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time since 2019 when she directed Dream of A King (TheSpace) and The Adventures of Butt Boy & Tigger (TheSpace). Bernie was dramaturg on Muse of Fire (Shakespeare's Globe) and Little Soldiers (Theatre 
Re). She was nominated for the Off West End Best Director award for her work on The Quality of Mercy in 2022 for the play's initial run at the Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton. 

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