Andrew Malkin

Agatha Christie continues to be a crowd-puller in Cheltenham and the Everyman Theatre had a real buzz on the opening night of the week's run. Touring productions of the Dame's plays have often been rather second-rate but the Agatha Christie Theatre Company's production values are certainly first rate and this applies to the acting.

Verdict is one of the author's original plays and tells quite a complex story suggesting that Christie's own life had overtones in this play. The emotional world is to the forefront in this story of a professor, his wheelchair-bound wife, the wife's young cousin/companion and one of the professor's young and attractive students. It seems that no emotion can be regarded as forever. During this interesting play there are references to the extraordinary Walter Savage Landor and Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. The play ends with the sound on the old wind-up gramophone of the agony and the ecstasy of absolute love. The main characters are refugees from 1930s Germany and they mostly sustain their accents well. The play is unusual in not being the traditional whodunnit and it seems to explore in some depth Christie's fears for the future as the wife of a much younger academic. One wonders if she saw the life in the wheelchair as a reflection of her own possible life in future years.

Verdict is extremely well cast with Robert Duncan most convincing as the German professor, his large library covering two walls of his room with may books scattered around the floor. I thought Dawn Steele as the wife's companion gave a most appealing performance. As the invalid wife Cassie Raine was convincing as was Mark Wynter's positive portrayal of the family doctor. Ali Bastian performed well and Elizabeth Power as Mrs. Roper got all the laughs possible in a Christie play. There was a telling cameo performance by Andrew Malkin as the Detective Inspector. The play was pacily directed by Joe Harmston.

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Andrew Malkin

Last Updated: 17th October 2010