THE DAGGER OF THE MIND

Online journal of mystery, suspense and horror
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NOVEMBER NOTICES

The Play's The Thing


by The Dormouse

I wish I had a photographic memory (How I wish I had a photographic memory!), but I don’t. Therefore, when I see a play that I like, I invariably see it three or four more times. In addition to enjoying it each time, it helps me to fix the actors’ faces in my mind, memorize the intricacies of their movements up and down the stage, the tenor of their voices on every line, when the music comes in, and the effects of the lighting. Then, a year or even five years later, I can pick up a script of that play, start to read it, and it will come to life in my mind again – and I am able to relive to some extent that magical time in the theatre.

It’s not necessary to see a play performed first to enjoy reading the script, however. For those of you who live in theatrically challenged areas, you simply must become your own producer – produce your own theatre of the mind. You cast your favorite actors in the role, design your own set, and stage it in any way you can imagine. You can make different choices each time you read the play, and enjoy it all the more.

This month, I present you with a few recommendations of plays to sink your teeth into.



The Mousetrap and Other Plays) features Christie's most famous play - still running in the West End after 40 years! (aka The Mousetrap), The Hollow, Five Little Pigs, Verdict, and Appointment With Death. They are all fun reads - to see how she altered her books (it was okay for her to alter her books, woe to any other adaptist who did so!).

The Mousetrap was the first play I ever say, and the first play I ever saw in London. It is a sentimental favorite of mine. If you like Agatha Christie's works, you will love this play - as well as the others!



(Theatre book club edition cover)

Murderer is a play written by Anthony Shaffer. The Shaffer brothers, Anthony and Peter, have always fascinated me. Twins, born in 1926, they collaborated as Peter Anthony on a few mystery novels, have adapted screenplays, and written plays. Peter's plays are the more 'mainstream,' (Equus, Amadeus), Anthony's are they mystery ones which I love so well.

His triumph of course was Sleuth which I have seen performed on stage as well as the movie starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. I've yet to see Murderer on stage but would love to because its plot is so intriguing (and I would love to see how the first thirty minutes are performed!) Here's the plot: ''Opening with one of the most truly horrifying scenes ever devised for the stage [wa-ell...the modern stage, some of that old Grand Guignol was more gory than anything done in a slasher film seen today! ed] the play unfolds upon an incredulous and mesmerized audience. Constantly shifting, twisting, beguiling and witty, it is a brilliantly compelling drama, forever shunning the obvious and culminating in a stunning and terrifying climax.

And yest Murderer is so much more than this. While using the conventional props of a suspense drama, Shaffer explores the very nature of murder, examining the peculiar, subtle, and often unappreciated relationship between murderer and victim. Set against a background of sexual claustrophobia, with his portrayal of Bartholomew, a man obsessed with famous murders of the past, he looks into what murder is all about and why we are all so attracted to this foul and unnatural act.''

Murderer was first written and producted in 1979. About 10 years later, a much 'lighter' version of the concepts raised in this play was written by his brother Peter, in a comedy entitled Lettice and Lovage, which I had the good fortune to see in the West End, starring Maggie Smith as Lettice and Margaret Tyzack as Lotte. In this comedy, the two women fascinated by history recreate executions of people who went to their deaths with dignity. It was a hilarious play and like all good plays made one think. The playscript is out of print (but you can probably get it from Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service, or one of the many used book store sites on line) and you can read a review of an American production of it here


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