Written by well-known Agatha Christie (famous for Poirot and Miss Marple) and Frank Vosper, Love from a Stranger had everything an Agatha Christie fan could want! Plummy accents, afternoon tea, and middle-class scandal ran rampant. The play cleverly kept the audience entertained with both comedy and suspense in equal measure.
Theatre Experience šššš
The Lowry was, as always, a reliably good experience. Helpful, smiling staff pointed me to my seat in the Stalls ā an auditorium mostly full of past-middle-aged audience members here to enjoy an Agatha Christie. The queues at the toilets and bars moved quickly before the show and during the interval.
Plot šššš
The only thing missing from this plot wasā¦ a murder! Ordinarily Christieās thrillers see a murder at the beginning of the story. The audience waited quite a while for some action. The play initially moved slowly, picking up after the interval where things began to move very fast!
With limits sadly set by Christieās script, there were many details (such as the ominous ādark roomā and curious Ethel the maid) that could have been explored - and the ending in fact! However, what the production did with the script was great fun to watch.
Cast šššš
Small but solid ā great acting and accents from the cast of eight with clever comedic timing.
Helen Bradbury as main character Cecily Harrington was self-assured and a pleasure to watch on stage. Her whirlwind romance Bruce Lovell (Sam Frenchum) intricately portrayed his characters' facets ā what a master at accents! Nicola Sanderson as āAuntie Luluā was the perfect archetypal upper-middle-class spinster ā and received most of the laughs.
The microphones should have been turned up as it was hard to hear them.
Photo: Sheila Burnett
Staging šššš
The stage layout was classic and perfectly set the scene for 20th century period drama. There was nothing boring about the set, the clever design was very flexible. Just when I thought Iād seen everything the stage could do, something else happened. Movement and shifts across scenes showed various angles while startling ārevealsā (lighting could suddenly reveal hidden room behind a gauze curtain) shocked the audience.
These were used to show Bruceās strange behaviour, that Cecily doesnāt notice, giving the audience a delicious feeling of unease. The stage could feel claustrophobic, crowded and shadowy at just the right moments making the staging and lighting masters of suspense.
Music šššš
The majority of the play was unaccompanied by music or sound. The sounds were sparse and used to scare the audience or build suspense. Sudden, loud camera clicks and flashes had people jumping in their chairs. Between scene changes old-fashioned, happy and upbeat music would play reminding us of the time era, often contrasting to the increasingly menacing plot on stage.
The Theatre Bee š
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