Rep Talk: Nadine Rayner discusses Ayn Rand play

Ellen Drew and Robert Preston are handcuffed in a scene from the film Night of January 16th, 1941. Photo / Paramount / Getty Images

Although she found fame as a novelist, Russian-American Ayn Rand is probably best known for the first play she wrote — The Night of January 16th.

This play enjoyed huge success on Broadway in 1934, running for seven months non-stop.

When Repertory Theatre produced this play in the early 1980s we also enjoyed success, attracting large audiences.

There was the novelty of staging a play in the Whanganui Courthouse as the play is a courtroom trial of a young woman accused of the murder of her employer who was also her lover.

Another novel feature of the play is that the ending is decided by the jury which is selected from the audience. There are two possible endings depending on whom the jury decides they believe.

Is Karen Andre, former secretary, guilty of murder or not?

There's a large cast of witnesses who mainly describe the characters of Karen and her powerful millionaire boss but little is told of what actually happened.

It really is quite a gripping drama which was inspired by the death of the Swedish "Match King", Ivar Kreuger, so-called as one of his very successful legitimate businesses was the production of match sticks. Apparently, he did have other businesses, some of which would not have withstood the scrutiny of a modern day business audit.

When Ivar Kreuger took his own life in his Paris apartment in 1932, questions were raised as to whether or not his death was in fact a suicide or was it murder?

Apparently, there were many who had reasons to wish him ill. What really happened?

I guess we'll never know.