Content Warning: This review discusses a violent homicide
The Dahlia Files is a one-person play rating the story of one of the most infamous murders to occur in America in the 20th Century.
Elizabeth Short was only twenty-two years old when she was killed in California in 1947. The American press being what it was, her vicious murder was front-page news for weeks, with every tiny tidbit being reported and discussed in extreme detail.
Whilst there was a large number of suspects, and a shockingly high number of fake confessions, no-one has ever been tried, or even arrested for the crime.
The Dahlia Files attempts to reveal some of the life story of Elizabeth, that has either been ignored or sensationalised in the media. Writer and performer Trystan Youngjohn takes us through Elizabeth’s all too brief life.
Born in Boston, and raised across New England, Short’s father designed miniature golf courses, a profession which spectacularly collapsed following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. He abandoned his car on the edge of a bridge in Cleveland a year later, and was presumed dead.
Now facing life as a single mother, Elizabeth’s mother had to try to raise five daughters in the midst of the Great Depression.
It was during these years that Elizabeth suffered from a significant number of respiratory issues, which led to doctors recommending that she should spend time in warmer climes.
In a surprise twist, Elizabeth’s father was not dead, but had fled to California to avoid his debts and responsibilities. Elizabeth went to live with him, partially to try to obtain the benefit of the better weather and spend less time in the bitingly cold Massachusetts winters.
Father and daughter managed a mere few months of living under the same roof. And so began Elizabeth’s wanderings around California, back to New England following an arrest for underage drinking, and a final return to the west coast sunshine.
What is known of Elizabeth’s life in those few years is sparse, and has had to be pulled together from recollections of friends, and some letters Short sent to her mother. The paucity of information has allowed rumours to gain traction, and the truth is now almost impossible to determine.
Into this mess of a life, and a mostly ineffectual, and sometimes incompetent police investigation, Youngjohn has woven an interesting tale.
The first section highlights Elizabeth’s life. She seems like a sweet girl, and you find yourself wondering what kind of a life she could have had if she had lived.
This section is at times a little frenetic, and an audience that is reluctant to join in with the small number of required moments of their participation does pull the pace down slightly. But Youngjohn interacts well with the audience, bringing them into her tale with wit and warmth.
The second section of the performance switches focus, dissecting the plethora of true crime podcasts which have manifested around gruesome murders generally, and that of the girl now known as ‘The Black Dahlia’ specifically.
Youngjohn takes these international behemoths of media to task, asking what gives them the right to profit off a person’s death, and the trauma of her relatives, some of whom lived well into the twenty-first century.
This is a really interesting section of the piece, and I’d have liked to have heard more discussion of these issues. Of course, even though this is the Free Fringe, and there is no charge for admission, this production is also hoping to make some money out of Elizabeth’s story. The amounts may be on a significantly different scale, and Youngjohn’s stance is more than valid. But where does the line of acceptable behaviour lie?
This is an interesting play, which humanises a young girl who has become known by a media imposed moniker, rather than her actual name. A young girl whose actual story has been all but forgotten in the sensation of her death. A young girl for whom there has never been any justice.
A warning that the show does not shy away from giving the full details of Short’s fate. This is absolutely not for children, or less emotionally mature teenagers, as the details are genuinely appalling.
A piece of theatre that will make you think about the media you consume, and the real stories behind the headlines, this is a play which will stay with you as the ‘True Crime’ industry continues to treat traumatic events as disposable entertainment.
The Dahlia Files continues at 13:10 in the Chamber Room at Banshee Labyrinth daily until August 12
Featured Image courtesy Edinburgh Fringe Society
