I have to be honest, I had not until now seen this play despite its famed longevity, and was both looking forward to it greatly and at the same time dreading it. Looking forward because of its fame and the promise of seeing something completely new, but dreading because I am only too well aware of how dated it is and how forumlaic and boring Agatha Christie can be (and usually is) when made into a play.
The play first opened in 1952 and is the world's longest running play, unsurprisingly, but I had thought up until this evening, that that was simply because it was Christie and there were untold tourists from far and wide clamouring to see a quintessential British play - as well as the play's denouement being the theatre world's best kept secret! Although why and how that can be when both the novel and play adaptation are widely available both in bookshops and online, I simply cannot imagine! However, after watching the play, I am delighted to report that it is one of the slickest (and funniest) of the genre I have seen in a long while and the end is actually quite surprising, and not what I expected. I can understand now its popularity.
I does have quite a slow start; although given it being the exposition, that is both understandable and forgiveable, and once the play got into its stride - with the entrance of guests both expected and unexpected, welcome or otherwise, it was much more light-hearted and fast-flowing than I had assumed it would have been, and was very enjoyable.
A typical stately home set which worked well made the omnipresent backdrop, whilst a large stained-glass window with effective lighting and effects told the time of day and the weather. (winter and much snow... on the hottest day of the year so far!) and the multifarious, dubious, suspicious-looking characters which enter could all quite easily be the murderer - as the radio announces the suspect, and a clever costuming of each cast member confirms.
Directed with intelligence and an obvious love of the genre by Gareth Armstrong, the absolute best was wrought from each actor, and a wonderful on-stage chemistry was developed. The play is obviously a period piece and set firmly in the early 1950s, and the entire cast's mannerisms / gait and voices echoed this superbly. The one thing which perhaps could have made it a tad more realistic would have been for at least one of the characters to have been smoking.
The strong cast, all with their various secrets and mannersisms, and some a little obverbearing at first, until you realise through the narrative why they are behaving thus, were all actually on consideration superb. Monskwell Manor, as indeed that was the name of the rather out-of-the-way stately home, having only recently been willed to a young married couple who were taking their first steps in a joint business venture of opening the house up as a guest house, and as each guest arrived, all as singletons, a new layer of intrigue was added and a further dynamic given to the play. The young couple, Giles and Molly Ralston were played with vigour and style by Nick Biadon and Harriett Hare; whilst the guests were the objectionable and snobby Mrs. Boyle (Gwyneth Strong), a young aspiring architect who gushed with enthusiasm overmuch, Christopher Wren, (Lewis Chandler), a retired army major (John Griffiths), and a mysterious young lady who had spent most of her life in Majorca, Miss Casewell (Saskia Vaigncourt-Strallen). The cast completes with the entrance of the police ( just like every Miss Marple genre play / film / book I know!) this time in the form of Sgt. Trotter (Geoff Arnold).
If you are a fan of the Murder Mystery genre then this is a play that must surely be high on your list, and if you are a newbie, then what better way to introduce yourself to this type of play, you couldn't have a better start!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 13/5/19
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