The Painted Cage

Set in 1890s Victorian Japan, The Painted Cage is based upon the true-life story of an accused murderess, Edith Carew. Historical facts provide the framework for this imaginative interpretation of her story, told through the character of Amy Redmore.

Marriage takes Amy from the Somerset to Japan where her husband Reggie is to take up a posting in Yokohama. Amy’s new life in the British enclave upon The Bluff, is beset with problems. Her husband, a declared arsenic addict, is soon lost to the temptations of the town’s social whirl and its notorious pleasure quarter. Amy, with a freshly awakened sense of independence finds new friends, and soon becomes the victim of her own sensuality. More significantly she makes enemies — people who when the time comes will brand her publicly as an adulteress and a murderess.