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Melissa Macleod Herion is Henrietta, the sculptress. She plays at keeping secrets and she plays at having emotions and she plays convincingly enough for a character whose depths are shallows. She is so busy being Henrietta that she sometimes jumps right over that character to become another character whose emotional base is very deep indeed. It is both disconcerting and very revealing for we never truly get to know how deep-seated Henrietta’s personal deceptions might be. We only know that she regrets her life as it is being lived while at the same time finding excuses for herself. A fascinating realization of Christie’s complex heroine.
Dominick Varney does well by Edward and Vanessa Dunleavy is an excellent Midge. Sky Vogel as the butler, Gudgeon, does just what’s he’s supposed to do and he does it nicely.
Brian Edelman is the young Inspector. He gets through all of his lines and seems unperturbed by the murder and the juxtaposition of the murderer. He serves his function barely and is abetted with the humorous take on Sergeant Penny brought to life by Ben Katagiri. His is a womanizing copper with a sly take on taking a statement. The two work well together in these roles.
Veronica Craye is the unfortunate victim of the accent-challenged Kathleen Boddington. She tells her ex-lover that if she can’t have him then the other woman in his life "cahn’t HALVE you." She later admits that she "ahsked him to COMB over." Maybe it’s just me but no one in Britain would say such things with a straight face and not expect someone to notice.
The Cristows are being portrayed by Patrick White and Kathleen M. Carey. White does a fine job until the end of Act One when he suddenly seemed to fall apart as a character. I don’t know if there was a backstage glitch, but he suddenly floundered in his role, lost his accent and generally undid his wonderful impact on everyone earlier in the act. His performance was so good, in fact, that other actors lesser work was becoming excusable.
Carey, on the other hand, is a perfectly consistent delight all the way through her performance as Gerda Craye. This actress brings so much reality to her role that it becomes easy to forget that she is an actress in a role. It is almost as though Gerda came through to tell her stories, play out her part in the mystery, show and not tell. In the second act Carey plays a romantically crazy duet with the study’s sofa, a lovely partner in a fine set designed by Abe Phelps. She certainly has my vote for character actress perfecting her character as she goes.
This is not the best of Christie, but it does keep you guessing right up to the end and with a touch of romance, a touch of larceny and a touch of murder going for it, the play’s two hours and fifteen minutes glide by like a trolley car with rags on its wheels. This theater has a history of doing Christie proud and with this play they do all that they can to maintain that record.
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