OLT’s Unexpected Guest: troublesome script, good performances
The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie, Ottawa Little Theatre, directed by Alain Chamsi
There’s no denying that Agatha Christie brings off a stunning surprise at the very end of The Unexpected Guest.
It’s a pity, therefore, that elsewhere the play is often bogged down in verbosity.
The current Ottawa Little Theatre production is sustained by some solid performances, but the fact remains that this 1958 thriller, the last to achieve box-office success for its author, seems excessively wordy. It also strains the credulity of even the most avid Christie admirer.
It has a promising beginning, the ingredients a foggy night, a remote country mansion, and a stranded traveller who comes through the French doors to encounter, in the darkness, a dead body in a wheelchair.
We learn that the dead man is a rather nasty specimen named Richard Warwick and that the woman standing over him with a gun is his wife Laura. The arriving stranger — Michael Starkwedder by name — does not believe the evidence before his eyes. Before you know it, he and Laura are deep into a discussion about the best way of proving her innocence.
It’s a discussion that drearily goes on for most of the first act — with the two living characters unruffled for the most part by the presence of a corpse in their midst. Christie is trying to meet some expository requirements here — but the dramatic circumstances are improbable.
The play itself has an interesting history. Earlier in 1958, Agatha Christie had attempted a more serious piece called Verdict. It received a lukewarm response from the critics, some of whom suggested that her playwriting career was over. Christie was determined to prove them wrong, and she quickly responded in straightforward thriller mode with The Unexpected Guest, a play that certainly didn’t match the virtuosity of Witness For The Prosecution or the old-fashioned virtues of The Mousetrap but still won a respectful endorsement from the critics and also — quietly one night — a visit from the Queen. It proved to be Dame Agatha’s last stage success.
That original production, at the Duchess Theatre in Covent Garden, supplied The Unexpected Guest with the kind of class treatment that it needed to survive. And in Ottawa, 60 years later, it benefits similarly from a talented creative team. Romauld Frigon’s country-house setting serves the needs of the material admirably, and director Alain Charnsi and key cast members work hard to rescue the script from its torpor.
The OLT production works hard to highlight those moments in which the plot generates some suspense, particularly when it comes to a mysterious figure called MacGregor obsessed with avenging the death of his child. It also seeks to engage our interest by emphasizing character (tricky with Christie) but the effort yields mixed results. Despite Sharron McGuirl’s valiant efforts as the murder victim’s crotchety old mother, the performance remains no more than a well-executed stereotype. Mike Logan and Jesse Durward give serviceable performances as the two policeman, but again the script prevents them from getting beyond the level of cliche.
However, in the best performance of the evening, Jeff Clement brings truth and poignancy to the role of an emotionally troubled family member. Philippe Gagnon brings a creepy precision to the character of a blackmailing servant. Dylan Barnabe manages to convey both the turbulence and ambiguity of a bereaved wife discovered in a compromising situation at the start of the play. And, in his portrayal of that stranger who emerges out of the fog at the beginning, Jesse Lalonde’s aura of know-it-all smugness is a good fit for the kind of evening this is.
The Unexpected Guest continues at Ottawa Little Theatre to July 28.
Director: Alain Chamsi
Set Design: Romauld Frigon
Lighting: Steven Truelove
Sound: Robert Krukowski, Lindsay Wilson
Costumes: Gillian Siddiqui
Michael Starkwedder: Jesse Lalonde
Laura Warwick: Dylan Barnabe
Julian Farrar: Jamie Hegland
Inspector Thomas: Mike Logan
Sergeant Cadwallader: Jesse Durward
Mrs. Warwick: Sharon McGuirl
Angell: Philippe Gagnon
Miss Bennett: Nancy Thomson
Jan Warwick: Jeff Clement