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!

The Mousetrap and other plays

cristina86 28 Jul 09 at 12:59 p.m. GMT

A couple days ago I finished reading this collection of plays, "The Moustreap and other plays", published by Penguin Books. Before the only Christie play I had read (in Italian) was the Mousetrap, which I loved. But this book was really a discovery. I'm posting my two cents here, if anyone wants to join in the discussion ^^

* "Ten Little Indians" - I had read the novel before, in Italian and in English. I found the stage version very well crafted and different enough from the book to keep my attention piqued all the time - for example, Blore's death caught me off guard even though I knew that he would be the next Indian to go. And Lombard's witty remarks made me laugh more than once. All in all, I found the play just as enjoyable as the novel itself.

* "Appointment with Death" - this was one of the plays I had not read before, not even the story it was adapted from. As such, it was quite a surprise; I got carried off by the underlying psychologic drama, and found that the 'mood' of the play made it quite a page turner. One of my favorites, undoubtedly. Lady Westholme's bickering with Abraham and Higgs was just too hilarious XD Yet my favorite line has to be Higg's "Hey Doctor, there's a patient here for you" - I actually laughed out loud at that one!

* "The Hollow" - it's perhaps the only play that disoriented me a little. I don't mean that it's bad, it just... I don't know, when I reached the end, it seemed to me that while the pieces did click together, I could not really figure out *how* they did. The discussion about Henrietta's sculpture perhaps sidetracked me a little, or it may be that my attention span swayed off and on while reading "The Hollow". I'm not quite sure what to think of it, that's it. It may be that I follow - and understand it better after a re-read.

* "The Mousetrap" - in Italian I had read both the story version, Three Blind Mice, and the play script of the Mousetrap. And I remembered it well enough not to be really surprised as I read it in English. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it very much. Now if only I could get to see it represented on stage, I would be a very happy camper.

* "Witness for the Prosecution" - I'll be blunt and confess that I hesitated before starting this one. I had not read the book either, not even in Italian, because the title just didn't do it for me, it did not inspire me - I couldn't really tell why. But when I skeptically decided to give the play a try, and began reading it, I was thrilled. It was such a revelation, I could not stop turning the pages down to the very end - and boy, was it an end I had NOT seen coming. I finished it in a flash - even staying up 'til late at night to read one more page - and when I did, I called a friend at the telephone and told her what an engrossing read it had been. She asked about the plot - and when I reached the part about the blonde woman with a scarred face, she suddenly went "Wait, I know how it ends - I've seen this - it's a film with Marlene Dietrich!". I looked up the film version on Wikipedia, and having enjoyed the play so much, I ordered a copy of the DVD. I'm looking forward to see it, to see if the film version is as good as the play version, which became my all time favorite Christie play - it's a tie game with Mousetrap and Appointment with Death. And while I love Mousetrap dearly, I'll give Witness and Appointment an additional 1/2 point for being such surprising discoveries, as I had read neither before.

* "Towards Zero" - this was also thrilling. I was in the blank until the very end - I had no clue as to who to suspect, at first I was even mislead about the identity of the dead as I really believed it would be Mary and not what's-her-name (bear with me, my memory's failing me at the moment >_<). And I found the character of Nevile to be very spooky - in many ways he reminded me of Mrs. Boynton. Once again, Dame Agatha manages to make her character turn out very differently from what they may have looked like at first.

* "Verdict" - another astonishing discovery. Although I personally enjoyed Witness for the Prosecution and Appointment with Death more, Verdict was an awesome read. I felt so sympathetic with Karl - and yet I could also see why his views on the world and on people could leave Anya and Lisa baffled. It's something I always loved about Agatha's works - her characters are not just anonymous cardboard figures, they're realistic and believable - they just ring true to life, like persons you could easily know yourself. I found all this in the Verdict, which made for a great read. The ending was quite poignant too.

* "Go Back to Murder" - I've not read the book version of this one either. It was very complicated, and my guess on the murderer was almost completely off - I made the same mistake of judgement as Caroline herself. But the story did not fail to keep me engaged, and I especially liked how the "dive back in the past" was represented on stage - while I read about the lights going black out and the change of scenery I kept thinking how great it would have been to see the actual play performed. In the end, I liked it lots, and have already decided that I'll get the book next - after all, the book version has Poirot in it, so it can only be even better *_*

That's about me. your thoughts? :)

Login or register to add posts and reply

1 reply

Reverse order

InspectorGrant 19 Jun 10 at 3:54 p.m. GMT

'There was a very good version of Witness for the Prosecutión which was made for TV, I think, and came out in the 1980s.  It featured the talented Diana Rigg as Christine Vole, with Sir Ralph Richardson and Deborah Kerr as the defence barrister and his long suffering nurse respectively.  Wendy Hiller had a brief role, and was brilliant as ever.  Jeff Bridges played Leonard Vole, and was also very good, and the rest of the cast read a bit like a who's who of the British acting profession.  One to look out for.