May 7, 2007
The Agatha Christie Theatre Company is on a mission to "capture the time in which [the plays] were written...without unexcitingly preserving them in aspic". It's a difficult balance, and one they manage to keep quite well, although one wonders if they might have got a more impressive result by going to one of the two extremes instead.
The set is a series of visual contradictions that makes a good support for the undercurrents of evil pervading a "perfectly normal family". We start out with a splendidly spooky backdrop of a midnight house with glowing windows and the impression is that we're in for a night of camp gothic. The action, however, all takes place in a smooth modern 50s interior, with plenty of space and metal furniture. But then you gradually notice the collection of menacing African curios suggested, half out of sight, at the top of the walls. A fair amount of use is made of these, and also of a very spooky soundtrack, calculated to raise the adrenalin but not really very relevant to any element of the plot. In the end, we decided that the soundtrack was a Good Thing: it was sufficiently rarely to be unobtrusive but nonetheless kept the adrenalin flowing.
It was mostly because of this, in fact, that the audience was kept in the tense, mildly hilarious condition engendered by the best murder mysteries: the responses to exciting moments on stage were generally somewhere between a titter and a scream. The acting wouldn't have produced this effect by itself, being competent but stagey, and the script, hovering as it does between dead children, mental impairment and some classic Christie cardboard ploys, offers neither a cosy escapist world nor a dark, complex thriller. Together, however, all the elements managed to cover for each other's minor deficiencies, making the whole a good solid evening's entertainment.
I was very impressed by how well the cast kept the balance between the high-tension of the sudden, snaky plot twists and their wise underplaying of what would otherwise become some unbearably hammy lines. Fans of Eastenders will enjoy Dean Gaffney (Robbie Jackson) as a cuddly - yet dangerous – imbecile, and Virginia Stride as the knowing mother had great presence. Eugene Washington drew most of the evening’s laughs with a very good delivery of a fairly dull manservant part. Tracey Childs as the wife of the murdered man carried the evening with charismatic discontent. Jack Ellis as the Unexpected Guest of the title was rather bland yet involving in a Michael Caine sort of way. The script doesn’t really allow for an acting tour de force from any of the players, but all were professional and there were no weak links.
As with all Christie, the plot’s the thing, and no one does that satisfaction as it all slips into place better than she does. A pleasurable evening for thriller fans, but, by nature, not life-changing theatre.
The set is a series of visual contradictions that makes a good support for the undercurrents of evil pervading a "perfectly normal family". We start out with a splendidly spooky backdrop of a midnight house with glowing windows and the impression is that we're in for a night of camp gothic. The action, however, all takes place in a smooth modern 50s interior, with plenty of space and metal furniture. But then you gradually notice the collection of menacing African curios suggested, half out of sight, at the top of the walls. A fair amount of use is made of these, and also of a very spooky soundtrack, calculated to raise the adrenalin but not really very relevant to any element of the plot. In the end, we decided that the soundtrack was a Good Thing: it was sufficiently rarely to be unobtrusive but nonetheless kept the adrenalin flowing.
It was mostly because of this, in fact, that the audience was kept in the tense, mildly hilarious condition engendered by the best murder mysteries: the responses to exciting moments on stage were generally somewhere between a titter and a scream. The acting wouldn't have produced this effect by itself, being competent but stagey, and the script, hovering as it does between dead children, mental impairment and some classic Christie cardboard ploys, offers neither a cosy escapist world nor a dark, complex thriller. Together, however, all the elements managed to cover for each other's minor deficiencies, making the whole a good solid evening's entertainment.
I was very impressed by how well the cast kept the balance between the high-tension of the sudden, snaky plot twists and their wise underplaying of what would otherwise become some unbearably hammy lines. Fans of Eastenders will enjoy Dean Gaffney (Robbie Jackson) as a cuddly - yet dangerous – imbecile, and Virginia Stride as the knowing mother had great presence. Eugene Washington drew most of the evening’s laughs with a very good delivery of a fairly dull manservant part. Tracey Childs as the wife of the murdered man carried the evening with charismatic discontent. Jack Ellis as the Unexpected Guest of the title was rather bland yet involving in a Michael Caine sort of way. The script doesn’t really allow for an acting tour de force from any of the players, but all were professional and there were no weak links.
As with all Christie, the plot’s the thing, and no one does that satisfaction as it all slips into place better than she does. A pleasurable evening for thriller fans, but, by nature, not life-changing theatre.