Book Club

Christie's Plays

Agatha Christie wrote over a dozen plays, the most famous of which is The Mousetrap - the longest running play in the world. Here you can discuss each play in detail.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

Appointment with Death (play)

Moderator1 21 Sep 09 at 3:02 p.m. GMT

Among those on a tour of Egypt, is the Boynton Family. Definitely not the typical American family however, as these children are ruled over with a rod of iron by their stepmother. But these children are not youngsters but adults who should be able to live their own lives. It is almost inevitable that the hateful Mrs Boynton won't be alive at the end of this holiday, but when she is found dead it is not a relief for the family but the start of a time of suspicion of each other.

This is another of Christie’s plays where Poirot has been removed but does his non-appearance even register here? And is Mrs Boynton such a hateful character that even the audience would be happy to be found guilty of her murder?

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5 replies

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GKCfan 24 Sep 09 at 2:44 a.m. GMT

I think that the changed ending is very interesting because it reflects Christie's thoughts on the self-destructive nature of evil and cruelty.

go_leafs_nation 24 Sep 09 at 9:22 a.m. GMT

I thought this was a weak play. The alternate solution made me feel cheated. It was such a simple and uninteresting explanation! How the killer did it was far more interesting to read about in the book. This ending is like a locked-room murder in which a secret passage is part of the solution.

Frndorfoe 30 Sep 09 at 8:28 a.m. GMT

Yeah, I guess it is a weak play and definitely not one of my favorites. But I agree with GKCfan. The changed ending is indeed very interesting for exactly the reason GKCfan mentions. A person who is as controlling as the victim is in this play, is quite capable of doing what she did to ruin everyone’s happiness forever. Believe me, I know!

Christopher_Wren 15 Mar 10 at 8:06 p.m. GMT

The play as a whole I found pretty weak as well. There were too many characters, who added too less to the plot.

However, the changed ending I liked a lot, and I actually think it is way superiour to the one in the book. The book is all about proving the innocence of the younger Boyntons, and look, there this convenient other person, who did it. I actually found the ending of the play, particularly Mrs Boynton's reason for her suicide, much more realistic. Killing herself and making it look like murder, so that everybody would suspect each other, and they would all live in her shadow again, is exactly, what the character Mrs Boynton, as written by Christie in both the book and the play, would do.

NightRayDuck 10 Apr 11 at 1:03 a.m. GMT

umm, I am going to do an uncharasteristic thing, and agree with every opinion so far advanced by everyone here. I do appreciate the view that "a mystery ought to be complex and not turn out to be the simplest solution", as well as the view that "this explanation works quite well for the murderer's psychological character". I'd like to point out a technicality, though. go_leafs was quite right about the crime in the novel version being a very intricate locked-room setup. I imagine that would be very difficult to do on stage.. without audiences seeing through the trick at once. And if the moment of the murder isn't played on stage, then all the witness statements from the novel would be way too wordy for live act on stage.