S04 · E64

Songbirds Out of Tune

This civil case hinges on a dispute between two world-renowned mezzo-sopranos. Cheryl Vandamm, an American, claims that she was falsely imprisoned by her rival Ethella Burns, an Australian. Vandamm was booked for a role in London, but argues that Burns plotted to take her place. She did this by firstly hiding Vandamm's passport and then slamming shut a faulty toilet door, trapping her inside for enough time for her to miss her train to London. Burns denies these claims. She asserts that she had no part in hiding the passport or locking the toilet door. She states that Vandamm was flustered by these accidental delays and feared that she would give a bad performance. To avoid embarrassment she invented the claim of false imprisonment, which would also allow her to retain her fee.