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In the story, how is the woman in red involved in Eva's death? How does Eva die on stage?

Woman in Red
The first ways the woman in red was involved in Eva's death was to act as her controller or "minder." She physically led Eva from the stage at the end of each act and, along with Michael, interposed herself, especially at the park, to keep Rich/Howell properly away from Eva so he couldn't change the scripted lines and thus the outcome of the play.

The three most critical ways the lady in red was involved in Eva's death occur in the third and fourth acts.


  1. At the close of Act III, the lady in red (let's call her Red) delivers the line that seeds the ultimate conclusion of the play, seen in Act IV.

  2. During Act IV, after the other Howell actor has torn and burned the letter from Michael, after Eva quietly weeps in relief, after Red enters and suggests Michael's departure from England is a ruse, and after Howell takes a phone call, making a movement that startles Eva so that she spills her tea as she is about to sip it, Red makes a "scandalized exclamation." We know that Eva has changed the script by not sipping her tea.

  3. The sound of Red's exclamation is "superimposed over the faint click." At the "click," Howell understands what has happened since he hastily rushes off stage right (while Rich rushes up the aisle and out the theater).

It is accepted that Red has poisoned Eva's tea, although there is no evidence of that action. When the final act opens, with Rice ensconced back in the audience again, the curtain raises showing Howell and Eva in his library (or study). He is reading a letter that he then hands to Eva. Eva reads it, returns it, and seems to the audience to be "crying contentedly." Red enters at this point, when Howell is tearing the letter and putting it in the fire: "Of course, the inevitable lady in red invaded the peaceful melancholy of the study, where love and forgiveness of Howell could be perceived in their silence."

When the presumably poisoned tea arrives, a phone call takes Howell away from the sofa. Howell makes a sudden movement, rising to announce something. Eva is startled by him, spilling her tea that she is about to sip. Red exclaims, there is a click, Howell rushes out: "Howell seemed to understand and initiated his sudden rush to the wings at right."

If we piece all these details together, the picture we get of Red's involvement in Eva's death is this: After acting as her "minder," Red acts (off stage) to use the tea, which is so often a part of the staging, to poison Eva, presumably over Michael; "Michael and the lady in red" did observe Eva closely. When Howell's clumsiness (an intentional ploy to change the outcome?) startles Eva into spilling her tea, Red, shocked into an exclamation, is ready with an alternative; she avails herself of a small gun. Howell, leaving the phone and rising "to announce something," sees the gun, sees Red shoot. Runs.

So the fourth way that Red is involved in Eva's death is that she, having a back-up plan, shoots Eva. Red stays and finishes the final act while Howell runs from the theater. When he encounters Rice, both running for their lives, Rice suggests he too, along with Howell, tried to save Eva. Howell says it's no use: "'Always the same thing happens,' Howell said as if talking to himself. 'It is typical of the audience to believe they can do better than ourselves, and, in the end, there is no use.'"

Eva's Death
Eva, being shot, turned her head toward the audience as if "in disbelief," then slid to the side "until she was almost lying on the couch." Howell fled. Rice fled. Eva was alone with Red as the curtain fell, the audience applauded, the play ended: "the absurd began in the [first] interval when the gray man approached [Rice's] chair."



Stay with me until the end, said Eva. Do not let them kill me, Eva had said absurdly. From the safety provided by the audience it was inconceivable that anything could happen of a scenario so horrible. [...] "But perhaps it's not be so serious," [Rice] muttered. "You said it was always the same." Howell put a hand to his mouth ... Rice ... wished that Howell would answer .... He caught his arm, pulling him with full force. "Do not let me be like you," he pleaded. "I cannot keep running forever, not knowing."


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