A Murder is Announced

Quaint English villages with dotty spinsters and aunts, have always been the milieu of Miss Marple in Agatha Christie novels and A Murder Is Announced has them all. Originally written as a novel in 1950 it was the first Miss Marple story to be adapted to the stage in 1977. A good local cast bring this production, heavy with nostalgia, lovingly to life. They recreate the post World-War two era of Britain in an intriguing, but formulaic, murder mystery directed with skill by Darren Yap.

Robert Grubb was a commanding presence as the Inspector determined to solve the puzzle, Debra Lawrence a stylish lady-of-the-manor with secrets, while Diedre Rubenstein was memorably dotty as the losing-her-marbles sister Dora. But the inspired piece of casting was Judi Farr as the indefatigable Miss Marple. She could have stepped straight out of the pages of any of Christie’s books she was so perfect. It was a very convincing performance. Carmen Duncan was a welcome return to our stages as the decorative Mrs Sweetman, while Victoria Haralabidou ate up the role of the Hungarian maid, Mitzi.

The convoluted plot, which involved most of the assorted house guests wanting to get their hands on a pile of money, was played out with gunshots, blackouts, and not one but two murders.

Linda Bewick’s drawing-room set had the requisite numbers of doors and was appropriately chinzy, while Suzy Strout had a field day recreating the costumes and hair-styles of the period.

A Murder Is Announced is produced by the same producers who last year cleaned-up with their production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. It doesn’t have the same cache as The Mousetrap with its still-running-in-the-West-End-after-sixty-years record, but it is a respectable old-fashioned thriller, and for those who love a whodunit it admirably fits the bill.

Peter Pinne      

Photographer: James Morgan

Sydney Review

Interview with Debra Lawrance