Agatha Crispie

There was nothing faint-hearted about the production of Cenarth Fox's Agatha Crispie at the Painswick Institute on 14th and 15th May.

The decision to do the British premiere of a play by an unknown writer was a very brave one and any criticisms I have of the performance would lie in the text, rather than the production.

The play was a three hour spoof on the writings of Agatha Christie. Her ponderous and extremely stupid policemen were there in the shape of Sir Henry Dithering (portrayed by Benedict Kolczynski) and Chief Inspector Bland, (Paul Stamp). Miss Mary Mead (Naomi Dunn) was the amazingly quick witted Miss Marple and Hercules Grey-Cells (Andrew Leach), as you would guess, was Poirot.

Crispie's, often highly improbable, plots were discussed with great seriousness by the very stupid - and this added to the general humour of the performance.

I wondered if the play was becoming a little too clever for its own good when I realised that the improbability of its own plots were intended as a mirror image of the improbability of Agatha's own. There was something a little frustrating about being subjected to three hours of such ridiculous improbabilities!

I also found myself wondering if any spoof could actually be maintained successfully for three hours - and deciding that it probably couldn't. However, this one had a jolly good try - and I would, personally, have forgiven it anything when performed by such a lively and talented group.

There was some very good acting from every member of the cast. Apart from those I have already mentioned: Lesley Wolowiec was a convincing Agatha Crispie (and Dorothy S. Layers); Chris Bamford was a delightfully ghastly Lavinia; and Jack and Jean Burgess were very good as Archibald and Elvira. Most outstanding of all however was Gill Cox, whose performance as Pimms, the maid, was quite exceptional.

Every detail of the production was good. The set was impressive; as were the costumes.

Although the play itself could have done with some rigorous editing, I, personally, was delighted to see something so different. I hope that PaDS will not be put off by the difficulties they have encountered - and that they will continue to bring us new and original plays.

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