ARTICLES ABOUT AGATHA CHRISTIE


       


 "UNEXPECTED GUEST" HAS CLUES, MANY DIVERSIONS.

Agatha Christie´s grip on suspense was definitely loosening by 1958 when she wrote: " The Unexpected Guest" another in her long, long line of whodunit  murder mysteries set in remote country estates with houseful of suspects.

Having one  to the same well so many times, she seems to have been grasping for some unique twist that would set this one apart. So she solves the mystery for us in the first two minutes. And then spends the rest of the play unsolving it and throwing red herrings at us like so much chum.

Any devoted Christie fab will have the mystery solved after the first few scenes. But, and perhaps this is her genius, that leaves a very long time to begin second.guessing, as the celebrated writer´s penchant for misdirection gives one pause.

Even if you were originally correct, as you probably are, your mind remains engaged. And Maybe Dame Agatha was not yet in her  dotage after all.

Castaways Repertory Theatre has tackled " The Unexpected Guest" in what seems to be an annual trotting out of a Christie thriller. The past few tries have been less than thrilling. With this one, under the direction of Kevin -kirby, they finally seem to be getting a handle on the genre.

Kirby´s cast is uneven, and there are few clunkers onstage, but he mostly has his players in check with oconomical and effective performances. He allows tension to build and play itself out in a dynamic tempo than gratly  enhances audience involvement. Although the setting is supposedly a foggy estate in Wales, Kirby plays down the English location and has jettisoned any thought of atttempting English accents, freeing his actors to ocncentrate on acting and not linguistics.

Here´s the plot outline : It is dark and foggy night. A man ( Carl Brandt Long) makes his way through a glass door into a unlit manor houe study and almost stumbles over a body propped up in a wheelchair. He turns and flashes his light on a woman (Pamela Sabella) standing motionless in the dark, a large gun in her trembling hand. The dead guy is the husband, the woman with the gun is the wife, and the stumbling man is the guest who is not expected.

The wife says she shiot her husband, and the only mystery left is how she and the stranger will conspire to cover up her crime.

Dame Agatha has written some long scenes in Act One tha will have you saying to yourself over and over: "People just don´t act this way. A srabger does not instantly involve himself  in someone else´s murderous activity. A murderer does not eagerly accept help from somebody who happens to just tumble through the window moments after a killing. A family does not accept that a stranger in their home has inserted himself into such siuation." It´s all off-kilter.

Now you know Christie to pull it together in the end, to make the unfathomable necessary. Keeoing than in mind will solve the mystery for you, provided you can suspend your disbelief al the way these people are acting. That , and the fact that the house seems alive, with doors that whoosh open by themselves and lights than turn themselves on and off.

The fickle finger of fatality points al the estate´s seven denizens one by one, with two police officers on site primarly for comic relief. The plot meanders this way and that before coming to a sudden resolution that may be disappointing. But the journey to that point will be amusing.

By Michael Toscano Special to The Washington Post ( Washington Post, November 2006).









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