The March Production
"The Unexpected Guest" by Agatha Christie.
Directed by Michael Dickerson
Cast
Howard Cole..
as..Richard Warwick
Debra Lewis..
as..Laura Warwick
Jonathan Morgan..
as..Starkwedder
Anna Davies..
as..Benny
Cynthia Pollard..
as..Mrs Warwick
Jonathan Davies..
as..Angell
Gerald Roderick..
as..Insp Thomas
Andy Lodwig..
as..Cadwallader
Neil Morgan..
as..Farrar
Review
THE UNEXPECTED GUEST
Neath Little Theatre, Westernmoor Road, Neath
Tuesday March 4th 2008
Neath Little Theatre's latest production is a deliciously old-
fashioned period thriller from the pen of Agatha Christie,
directed by Michael Dickerson and featuring a ten-strong
cast comprised of NLT stalwarts and newer faces.
The name of Agatha Christie inevitably brings to mind stories
in which the sleuth is at the centre of the drama - Miss Marple
and Hercule Poirot being the most obvious examples. But the
formula here is very different: true, the police(represented by
Gerald Roderick's Inspector Thomas and Andrew Lodwig's Sergeant
Cadwallader)are on the trail of a murderer, but it is around
the family of the victim that this play revolves.
Debra Lewis gives a nicely judged performance as Laura Warwick,
whose husband has been shot dead even before the curtain opens -
thus begging the immortal question: whodunnit?
Was it trigger-happy Jan Warwick(Damien Healy), a troubled young
man from the shallow end of the gene pool? Or sinister servant
Henry Angell(Jonathan Lloyd-Davies? And what of the debonair
stranger Michael Starkwedder(Jonathan Morgan), who seems to
have come straight out of a play by Noel Coward?
There is a twist in the tale at the very end, but along the way we
are treated to some engaging performances(veteran player Cynthia
Pollard was warmly received by the audience on the night I attended)
and some amusing lines of dialogue.
If the treatment is perhaps a little camp and OTT here and there,
this in no way detracts from the drama and indeed gives the piece
an air of knowing irony which renders it more watchable than a
purely straight interpretation might have been.
Graham Williams
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