There are only two kinds of secrets: Those that you keep and those... that keep you. Spanning over a century, Heirloom unravels the tumultuous saga of the Watson family, beginning on a decaying sugar plantation in 1865 Jamaica. As the empire crumbles, tragedy strikes, setting a young Albert Watson on a path to England, where his growing wealth, power and brutality knows no bounds. But as secrets fester and revenge brews his decedents fight to hide Albert’s corruption, only to find themselves enslaved by it leaving one haunting question: Who truly inherits the sins of the past?

SYNOPSIS:

Heirloom chronicles the cursed lineage of the Watson family. Beginning at a Jamaican sugarcane plantation, their fate is simultaneously woven into the present of an English market town and the plight of its ailing Am/dram society. 1865. In the waning days of slavery, tragedy strikes sending a young Albert Watson, fleeing estranged to England. Rescued from poverty by an inheritance, he swiftly amasses wealth and influence. In affluent Cobblebridge, amidst a backdrop of petty politics, rehearsals begrudgingly begin on a contentious am/dram production of the American musical: Show Boat. Stoked by vested interests’ egos and directors clash causing many to walk-out. Settled, the Watson name flourishes buying up land and establish businesses, but when disease, war and persecution claim his wife and both his sons, Albert is changed. Or is he? The society’s remaining members continue their musical collaboration in the face of a torrent of racial harassment and profoundly personal dilemmas. Undeterred, slowly a growing sense of civic pride and purpose begins to replace discord, and from the brink of collapse, the society incites reform and reconnects with the communities it serves. Tormented by his family’s ghosts, an aged Albert becomes increasingly vindictive. His reputation as a titan of the Cobblebridge community serves to hide a cruelty that knows no bounds, no shame. But his quest for an heir gives birth to the darkest of his secrets, a secret that will, without remorse, take from him his final breath. Now, as the past connects with its present, the Watson descendants are in deep trouble. Their clandestine plans to revoke covenants on ancestral land condemning the town’s theatre to demolition face being derailed by the growing civic zeitgeist. However, as Show Boat’s opening night approaches, there remains one way the Watsons can save themselves, achieve all of their aims and keep the secrets that have so mercilessly keep them, secret. All that is required before the opening night’s curtains come down… is one last heinous act, an act for which the Watson’s murderous bloodstained past has long prepared them for.

HEIRLOOM