There was one question in everyone’s mind tonight… whodunnit? With Agatha Christie’s cleverly elaborate writing it could have been several suspects in tonight’s play, “Towards Zero”.
Christie is renowned for writing the world’s longest running play, “The Mousetrap”. This was similar in premise but set in a more appealing location: the terrace of Lady Tressilian’s house (Saltcreek, Cornwall) in summer. Or maybe not actually given the circumstances.
Lady Tressilian (Pat Williamson) was an old and cold-hearted woman. She had invited numerous people into her home called “Gull's Point” by the sea, at the end of the summer. Neville Strange (David Glover), star of the tennis world, annoyed Lady Tressilian by bringing both his new wife Kay (Lara Hancox) and ex-wife, Audrey (Arianna Glenton) resulting in the most awkward and uncomfortable romance triangle. To make matters worse, Lady Tressilian was brutally murdered with a golf club and Superintendent Battle (Wayne Holt) found himself no longer holidaying but getting back to work to fathom out and solve just whodunnit.
This was a detective play which opened up an intricate web of scenarios in your mind; it made your brain go to work - but that’s a positive comment for Christie.
Williamson received laughter from the audience because of how ruthless and blunt her character was. Glover made for a convincing Neville, you could tell his past was weighing him down and his quick-fire temper came across as natural. Kay definitely wore the trousers in a relationship, as played by Hancox. She was caught up in her role and gave a confident and polished performance.
The rest of cast did a good job in supporting one another. However, some actor’s voices were rather deficient when it came to enunciation and resonance. Other performers looked as though they were waiting for a cue to say their next line, instead of being present as their character. A prompt was used a few times and some actors kept tripping over their words too, which in a wordy Agatha Christie play does spoil things to be honest.
Designer, Laura McKie had come up with a lavish-looking and aesthetically-pleasing “house with garden” set. Generously spoiled with flowers, vines, roses, pink and red colours. Although the sofa, table and chairs looked too modern for the 1940s and was an anachronism. While Geoff Scullard and his team created a lighting design which captured the beautiful late-summer weather, perhaps too welcoming and lovely for what in reality is meant to be the scene of a horrendous crime. Saying that, the lit cyclorama of paint pallet, sunset colours looked attractive. The blackouts in-between scenes were conventional to a Christie play. I think it was Frankie Laine’s “Jealousy” that was the song playing in the background in the transition between scenes. An appropriate choice which set the mood just right for the production.
The play is advertised as a “Nail Biting Thriller” but under Mike Shaw’s direction it only felt truly thrilling towards the end – and that wasn’t just because it was the big reveal. Taking everything into account, there was some good artistic choices and a few notable actors in this production, unfortunately it was let down by a lack of tension for most of it. It felt like you were watching a drama, you could relax a little and enjoy it. Sadly though, it didn’t want to make you bite your nails in terror.
Reviewer - Sam Lowe
on - 23/9/19
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