Agatha
Christie's A Murder Is Announced
- touring
Director - Ian Dickens
Company -Ian Dickens Production
Venue - Kings Theatre Edinburgh
Seen - 6 - 10 Feb 2001 toured till end July.
Reviewer Thelma Good
From before the curtain goes up we are transported back to 1952, when
radio listeners eagerly tuned into Dick Barton Speicial Agent. We hear
Saturday Night Theatre is on and it's an Agatha Christie radio dramatisation,
A Murder Is Announced in six episodes. I'll set the scene. In
Little Paddocks, Chipping Cleghorn, a motley selection of young guests
have been staying with Leatia Blacklock and her simple childhood friend
Bunny. Elsewhere in the village Miss Marple has come to stay with her
niece. It's the morning of Friday the 13th.
When an announcement is spotted in the Chipping Cleghorn Gazette we're off in a whodunnit which is laced with lies and false trails. There's even a foreign maid who adds a certain je ne sais quoi to her cooking. We get six scenes, with a curtain down between each, in which to mull over what we've heard and seen. In the interval you can quiz your companion or eavesdrop on the speculations in the bar. It's great fun as this Mistress of Mystery exploits the social necessities of those times when doors were rarely locked, legacies appeared in wills and you might come into a fortune.
This cast has several "well kent" actors off the tellie, Ruth Madoc, Leila Birch, Andrew Lynford, Geoffrey Davies and Juliette Kaplan who show their acting abilities well as they don't remind us of their TV appearances. Kaplan has the most difficult role of Miss Marple - the ghosts of Margaret Rutherford's and Joanne Hickson's characterisations detracted for me from Kaplan's. Her performance didn't quite get that air of mild eccentricity the other two gave in their portrayals.
All
the cast bring to some life the rather arch characters Mrs Christie
created. The slightly ironic air of the production works well. The direction
and design has a pleasing period feel, making this entertainment a play
to puzzle over. The twists keep you from solving it too soon and we
all see the solution in the end in time honoured fashion. N.B. There
are no clues in this review but there is a slight smell of fish.
© Thelma Good 6 February 2001