IT’S NO mystery why the plays of Agatha Christie continue to prove so popular with audiences at the Theatre Royal, Windsor.
You don’t have to be a detective to work out that the lovely old venue, with its chandeliers, polished wood panelling and plush red seating, is the perfect setting for such entertainment.
And when the performers are from the highly-acclaimed company who tour the country with their reverential and polished stagings of Dame Agatha’s finest plays, you know an evening of brilliance and nostalgia is in store.
Such is the demand from audiences that The Agatha Christie Theatre Company arrive at Windsor several times a year, sometimes returning within a few months with particularly-popular productions.
They’re at the Theatre Royal again this week, prior to setting off on a national tour with a new production of Verdict, one of just a handful of Christie’s plays not based on a short story or novel.
It dates from 1958, when it ran for more than 250 performances in the West End before transferring to New York.
Verdict tells the story of a highly-talented professor, Karl Hendryk, who is forced to flee persecution in his own country.
The new contentment he finds is shattered when he needs to find the money for treatment to save the life of his invalid wife.
Reluctantly, he decides to take on a new pupil and, well, revealing any more would be giving away the plot, but you can rest assured that with all Christie plays, there is murder, mystery and a plot with more turns than Windsor’s traffic system.
Several well-known faces are among the cast, headed by Dawn Steele, who played Lexie MacDonald in the BBC’s Monarch of the Glen and recently starred in ITV’s Wild at Heart.
She’s joined by the likes of Robert Duncan (Drop the Dead Donkey), Ali Bastian (Hollyoaks and The Bill), Windsor regular and former teen idol Mark Wynter, and veteran actor Peter Byrne, who many will remember as DC Andy Crawford in Dixon of Dock Green in the 60s.
Verdict opens at The Theatre Royal on Tuesday January 11 and runs until Saturday January 22.
Contact the box office on 01753 853 888.
