Portrait In Black
by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts

Tannis, a shipowner's widow, is in love with the doctor who helped kill her husband, and is loved by a lawyer who manages her husband's estate.

That murder is out and the murderers are on the loose is apparent from the shocking second when the first scene curtain descends on the confession.

An anonymous letter informs the guilty pair that the crime is known.

To protect themselves they must commit another murder, but the second crime fails to bring them security and the anguished couple feel the grip of destiny tightening on them until the explosive denouement in which their nemesis is finally unmasked.

The action of the play is breathlessly uphill, racing into peaks of suspense, terror, discovery, and confession.

There is a young love story between the dead man's daughter and a labor organizer who is fighting the shipline.

All the parts supplement each other and sum up to a compelling totality.