Posted 11:15 pm Friday, October 28, 2011
‘The Unexpected Guest' A Solid If Predictable Mystery
By STEWART SMITH
Entertainment Editor
Entertainment Editor
There's hardly a name more synonymous with "whodunit" murder mysteries than Agatha Christie, but not even she is immune to falling into a formula, it seems. Tyler Civic Theatre's most recent production is an adaptation of Christie's play "The Unexpected Guest."
Like most of her works, we follow an ensemble cast of varied characters, all of whom have their own unique motivations and entanglements within the plot. The story opens on a particularly foggy night as Michael Starkweather (Sean Holliday), having just crashed his car in a nearby ditch, stumbles into the home of Richard Warwick. Mr. Warwick, however, has just been shot in the head and it appears that his stunned wife, Laura (Camille Becton), is who pulled the trigger.
Michael is compelled to help her conceal the act and make it look as though one of her cantankerous (not to mention alcoholic and possibly abusive) husband's many enemies had come to enact some bloody revenge. Michael even goes so far as to wipe fingerprints, coach Laura on her story, cut out a revenge note from magazine and newspaper clippings and even fire Mr. Warwick's gun to make it look as though the "intruder" killed him out of self-defense. Why do all of this for a woman he's literally only just met? Perhaps for no other reason than she is a beautiful woman, he says.
Of course, the police come to investigate the following morning and it is then that we begin to question whether Laura really pulled the trigger or not. There are certainly other potential culprits. Take, for instance, James Farrar (James MacLane), the aspiring congressman who was having an extramarital relationship with Laura. Having Mr. Warwick killed certainly would have made it easier to take Laura as his wife than having to go through a messy divorce process. Then there's Jon (Mark Cox), Mr. Warwick's much younger, mentally disabled brother. Jon was angered by his brother's constant verbal abuse and was scared of his brother's threats to send Jon to an asylum. Could Jon's anger and fascination with guns mean he was the actual shooter? Could be. The police eventually settle on a suspect, the father of a young boy who Mr. Warwick killed in an auto accident years ago, but only until they discover he's been dead for the last three years. So, "whodunit"? Naturally, the answer isn't fully revealed until the play's final moments in typical Agatha Christie fashion.
The players are capable of bringing the story to life. They each fill their parts well, though Cox's performance stands out amongst the cast. Jon's enthusiasm toward crime and guns and becoming the "man of the house" soon bleeds into something more dangerous but Cox handles the transition well.
The play's problems, though, are more inherent to the story itself. While Christie is more or less responsible for creating the "parlor murder mystery" subgenre, but it's obvious that she was adhering a little too close to formula for this one. Predictably there are characters who aren't quite who they say they are, characters who are being manipulated and, of course, last minute revelations that change everything. That's not to say it's poorly constructed or even bad. It's not. Predictability and formula don't preclude this from being an enjoyable experience, just don't expect any real significant surprises.
TCT will continue its performances of "The Unexpected Guest" this weekend with performances at 7:30 tonight and Saturday and a 2:30 p.m. matinee on Sunday.
