Go Back For Murder

‘Go Back for Murder’ is an Agatha Christie whodunit classic, which is being produced by The Stirling Players at the Stirling Theatre, Morris Place, Innaloo. The play runs on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8.00 until 1^st December, with Sunday matinees at 2.00 pm on the 18^th and 25^th.

This was originally a 1942 Poirot book called ‘Five little pigs’, but in 1960 it was adapted by Agatha Christie into a play and Poirot was omitted. In America, the play was known as ‘Murder in Retrospect’.

       It is 1954, the year after the Coronation, and in his London office a young solicitor, Justin Fogg (Ian Greenwell), is catching up with an old case of his late father. Sixteen years earlier, a good friend, artist and general flirt, Amyas Crale, was murdered and his caring wife Caroline, found guilty of poisoning him. She managed to escape the noose but died three years later in prison.

      Now, with her coming of age, Crale’s daughter, Carla Le Merchant (Tess Perich) has been given a letter written by her mother begging Carla believe in her innocence. Carla has now arrived in London, from her home in Montreal, hoping to have the case re-opened. Fogg’s elderly clerk, Turnball (Tom Brandwood) smiles as if with recognition, as he shows Carla through to Mr Fogg’s office. 

       Fogg explains that the murder was a simple open and shut case. As Amyas (Gino Cataldo) was painting a young girl, Elsa (Emily David) he was poisoned. Carla’s mother was seen by the children’s nanny, Miss Williams (Karin Staflund), wiping fingerprints from the bottle of beer that had caused her husband’s death. There could be no doubt. 

      Carla’s fiancé, Jeff (voice Paul Anderson) back in Montreal is losing interest in her, as the murdering instinct may be in the genes. Carla will not be distracted and decides to visit her father’s best friends Philip (Greg Hopson) and Meredith Blake (Gary Billingham), but they too are convinced that Caroline murdered Carla’s father. Carla then meets her volatile Aunt Angela (Kaitlin Shawcross), her mother’s tearaway sister, again without success.

     By going back to the place of the murder, Alderbury, a manor house in the south west of England Carla hopes to find the truth.

The storyline was very good, plenty of red herrings and twists, but I am afraid the production was under rehearsed with quite a few fluffs. I think that one character was so under rehearsed that the lines were being made up as the play progressed. The three young women were excellent, the rest of the cast ranged from good to ‘oh dear’. The acting generally lacked tension and excitement. There were some interval walkouts.

The lighting at Stirling is usually slick, but at the performance, I saw, the lights went out 5 seconds early at the end of a scene, whilst an actor was still talking. One actor said ‘Let’s have a bit more light’ flicked a wall switch and a spot lit up, I don’t think that the walls of the room were properly illuminated at any time.

There were several locations in the play and only half worked. There was an attempt to create locations by use of lighting, but this did not really work. One set had a hat rack in the centre of the sitting room behind the settee. I just felt that the director on several occasions had rushed and said ‘That will do.’

The costumes were a highlight, accurately chosen by Fran Gordon for the two periods (1938 and 1954). Several costume changes so plenty of variety.

As a whodunit, the play was excellent and certainly kept everyone guessing – no, I did not guess the murderer. Enjoyable, but do not expect Stirling’s usual standard.