A. Christie at the Rose Theatre :The Mirror Crack'd (24.02.2023. Kingston upon Thames)

There is no doubt that Agatha Christie is still an attractive name to fill up the auditorium of any theatre. Rose Theatre (in Kingston upon Thames) had programmed five performances of Miss Marple story The Mirror Crack'd, and on Friday night (when I attended), the people were pouring in abundance.

I was very curious to see how this novel would be adapted to a theatrical play. It has already been adapted to a film several times, with one particularly famous adaptation starring Elizabeth Taylor in the role of Marina Gregg, Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple and the whole array of British and American film stars. I imagine that the British public is fairly familiar with the story, so the main point of seeing this play as a theatre adaptation would be the production - how would they set the story up, what would the novelty be, etc.

Well, I must say, this adaptation was a really good one and cleverly done, too. The few props/scene sets, notably an empty front house veranda with only a couple of chairs and some small domestic props, served our imagination perfectly well for each situation. The play didn't enroll in a chronological way, as it was written in the novel, rather the producers put Miss Marple center stage and through her interrogations (often in her house or garden, occasionally gone to other places), the story slowly unveiled.

The story-telling was done mainly by the Chief-inspector Craddock, who came to his aunt, Miss Marple, for help. She has helped him before with another murder (in the story The body in the library), that was found in Gossington Hall, the place where murder in The Mirror Crack'd occurred, and so he hoped that Miss Marple would sort out this new mystery for him as well. The narration was also helped by Miss Marple's friend Dolly, the previous owner of Gossington Hall, which she sold to a famous actress Marina Gregg. The dialogues and actual situations were performed by actors, playing their respectives roles to illustrate the story and put the right dynamic to the whole performance. During the story-telling, there were some flashbacks and returns to the same situations again and again, depending on who was actually telling the story, until the entire mosaic of individual situations was built to give us a whole picture.

Rachel Wagstaff has done brilliant job, respecting the novel's features and values, she didn't hesitate to add some little upgrades to the original story: Ella Zelinsky, Marina's secretary, who (in the novel) was in love with her husband Jason, was (in the play) in love with Marina; Lola Brewster, the young American actress making film with Marina, was (in the play) actually Marina's adopted and later abandoned daughter, as was Cherry, Miss Marple's domestic help. There were also a handful of really humorous dialogues added, too - for example about the existence of supermarkets and having to put all the items in the basket ourselves (let's not forget that this is the story from the early 60's) or indeed, more intimate dialogues - when Miss Marple and Dolly had their little confession-time in the garden. It was something new, more personal, but very relatable and done in perfect taste.

The theme from Tenysson's The Lady of Shallot, was also well utilised, not only to express Marina Gregg's expression, when she learnt the very news that had caused the tragedy in her life all those years ago (her son's brain damaged), but also to integrate it more broadly to the sad inevitability of Marina's actions.

This adaptation was not just a replica of A. Christie, though it was very much an Agatha Christie. It was a living and breathing piece about human nature, what people are capable of doing under certain circumstances and how they deal with it. The costumes were well chosen and the light and music both played an important part of the overall mood.

Susie Blake was an excellent Miss Marple, physically very much like other actresses portraying this "frail" but fearless lady, psychologically even more daring and inquisitive, which drove Chief inspector Craddock (played by Oliver Boot) mad. Sophie Ward, once played Molly in A Caribbean Mystery (another Miss Marple story with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple), was casted as Marina Gregg. She certainly wanted to portray this aging actress, who suffered in life and took her revenge, as a three-dimensional character, who couldn't always choose in life what she wanted even thought she was known as unfriendly (she said several times in the play that she didn't have any friends), selfish and carrier-hunting. Other actors and actresses were of a great support to the main characters and altogether formed a beliavable and enjoyable crew.