The Mirror Crack'd

As a self-confessed lover, aficionado, and long-time reader of all the works of Agatha Christie I was delighted to accept an invitation to watch Washington Theatre Group perform this latest adaptation of Mirror Crack’d.

As typical of her works the cast was filled with many characters, plot twists, red herrings, and a maze of dead ends to equal the maze in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The cast of the play were up to the challenges and coped admirably. Playing the unassuming but mentally sharp elderly sleuth ‘Miss Marple’ was Marie Lovell. Fairly housebound because of a sprained ankle Miss Marple was able to forensically deduce the culprit by the end of the play accurately. Marie gave a performance that was gentle but determined and managed to show not only the determinedness of the character but also the human side with her frailties. ‘Janes’ honorary ‘nephew,’ ‘Chief Inspector Craddock,’ was played with professionalism with a slight touch of frustration by Nigel Judson as his character semi patronised his ‘Aunt’ whilst endeavouring to solve the crime.

Jane’s part nurse, part housekeeper, the somewhat unbelievably sounding ‘Cherry Baker’ was performed by Lulin Moon. Was she as ditzy as she promoted herself, was there a hidden secret? Well, this ‘was’ Agatha Christie, Lulin kept the audience guessing til the end through her performance.

One character that was suspicious from the offset (but for the wrong reasons) was ‘Dolly Bantry’ (Christine Jary) previous owner of the ‘big house’ now occupied by a film star and her entourage. Being a lover of all the books of Christie I recognised the characteristics Christine brought out in her character as the borderline busybody, sensationalist friend of ‘Jane’.
It was nice to pick up references to previous books of Christie involving ‘Dolly’ and her now deceased husband (The Body in the Library).

The afore mentioned film star, ‘Marina Gregg,’ and her somewhat prickly husband ‘Jason Rudd’ were played by Cathryn Mills and Peter Wilson, respectively. Their American accents were apparent throughout and never wavered – well done. Peter is excellent at character roles and this part suited him admirably as his protective nature of his wife left many wondering if there was an ulterior motive until the end of the play. Cathryn played various aspects of her complex character throughout the play from her internal struggles to fear, to her acting role in the film with great ease.

Acting alongside ‘Marina’ was the much younger ‘Lola Brewster’ – a role that was not welcomed by ‘Marina’ as she pondered the ‘new talent’ eclipsing her own waning popularity. ‘Lola’ was played by Joanne Chard without resentment but with compassion; such qualities from Joanne which became apparent why at the end of the play.

Two others in the household were waiter ‘Giuseppe Renzo’ and secretary ‘Ella Zielinsky’ (Andrew Molloy and Theo Rose respectively). Although appearing periodically throughout the play, both held key roles in the plot, and both made use of their time on stage to develop their characters befuddling the audience in the process.

Of course, you cannot have a murder mystery without a murder – the role of the poisoned woman ‘Heather Leigh’ was played by Pamela Elliott. Her on stage husband ‘Cyril Leigh’ played by Barry Hogan – poor Barry had a thankless role as on each and every time he was about to speak or give his opinion on something relevant, he was interrupted and confined to the background – similar to ‘Cellophane Man’ in Chicago.

Throughout the play the action was interrupted by scenes played out numerous times as the ‘evidence’ was relived in the memories of those that witnessed those scenes. Of course, these witnesses’ memories were not always accurate and ‘Heathers’ poisoning was relived numerous times with the odd word change depending upon who witnessed it. My hat goes off to Pamela for coping with similar, but critically dependant, dialogue to contend with.

Staging was simple with often the only props to signify a scene was a chair or two and a table. The job of moving these props was down to director/stage manager Rachel Neill. Rachel is to be congratulated alongside the cast for fetching an Agatha Christie plot with its complexities and multiple casts onto the Washington Arts centre stage with its limited entrances and exits and still keeping the action flowing.

Congratulations to all the cast and crew for keeping the audience gripped until the final lines delivered by Miss Marple.

 

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