Pyjama Girl

Hothouse Theatre ensemble in the Pyjama Girl

“Ladies and gentlemen… Tonight we will Entertain and Elucidate. We will bring you Drama! Tragedy! Intrigue. Pretty girls…. And a True story almost too Shocking to be Believed.”

On September 1, 1934 the body of a young woman was found near the Howlong Road, about 8 kilometres out of Albury, NSW. She had been bashed and shot and her body set alight. No one knew who she was, so the body was preserved in formalin solution.

She was found wearing only silk pyjamas so the newspapers named her the Pyjama Girl. The mystery ignited local gossip and, for a time, put Albury on the map as the sensational story played out in the national tabloids.

In 1944 the woman was identified as Linda Agostini, and her husband Antonio arrested for the murder. But Linda Agostini had brown eyes, while the Pyjama Girl had blue eyes. This and other evidence suggests the mystery remains unsolved to this day.

The Pyjama Girl

“By employing vaudeville style, Gibson neatly short-circuits the impact of this story’s horrendous detail.

At the same time, her approach guarantees audience involvement as the atmosphere of 1930s Australia is evoked through speech, music, song and glitzy chorus-line routines for girls in spangled costumes.” Border Mail

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