Hey! Why come see a 60 year old play? We got ya.

I was dubious, too. Agatha Christie? The old white British dame who wrote about a thousand murder mystery novels featuring detectives with elaborate mustaches and things like spats and monocles?

But - hang on - it's not all that. I mean, it IS all that - in just this one play, you got wigs and the Old Bailey and a snooty barrister who literally looks down his long nose at dithering ladies and someone gets murdered with (no kidding) a "cosh" and there's an inheritance of 80 thousand pounds (!) - but it's not JUST all that.

In fact, one of the sorta shocking and rebellious things about this play -we're talking "Witness for the Prosecution," if you haven't already seen that poster all over the place - is that Christie, once again, takes some high British archetypes, and puts them up on the stage for us, and there they are, ho ho ho...

And then she ever so gently cracks the mold that holds these people tight in that model. The shell crumbles, and what, all that British reserve reveals to have a passionate bloody messy inside.

It's a thing to behold, the crafty old lady at work. In this one, you got your dotty Scottish maid who resents the upstart young male interloper. Oh, what a figure of fun! But hey - turns out
she's pretty sharp, and convivial, and appreciates her boss.

And your spinster who throws caution to the wind when a handsome young man comes calling. Again, so funny! A woman over 50 who thinks a man could find her attractive (haha!)! No wonder she got a cosh to her gray haired head. But again... as the play winds on, we find out she was a good
businesswoman; she was skeptical of people and often saw through them; and she managed, she did, that unmarried lady.

(Not for nothing, Christie married a man 14 years her junior. Fortunately she didn't get punished with a large heavy object.)

Kristen Heider and George Middleton

Then, you got your Romaine. WHAT is going on there? She's a foreigner, after a protracted and immensely painful war, so we are suspicious. But she loves her husband. But is he a murderer? Her lines are so unladylike: she's forthright, clipped, still - she doesn't dither or apologize or placate.

Sir Robarts doesn't know what to make of her - and neither do we.

So--there's all this - and then there's a really delightful twist that is just diabolical. I mean. It's a hoary British murder mystery, but it's also a really good character study!

Who knew? I mean, you probably did. But I didn't. And now I do, and so pleased.

Come see it! If nothing else, it is REALLY ENTERTAINING.

And hey, that's a fine fine thing these days.

Arlington Friends of the Drama Theatre presents

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

By Agatha Christie

directed by J. Deschene

PERFORMANCE DATES

Friday, March 1, 8pm

Saturday, March 2, 8pm

Sunday, March 3, 3pm

Friday, March 8, 8pm

Saturday, March 9, 8pm

Sunday, March 10, 3pm

$20 all performances. Opening night champagne reception after the show.

https://www.afdtheatre.org

CAST

Romaine Kristen Heider

Sir Wilfrid Robarts George Middleton

Leonard Vole Patrick McCormick

Mr. Mayhew Jesse Martin

Mr. Myers, Q.C. Brian Lavalle

Mr. Justice Wainwright Kevin Brunton

Greta Katie Weatherseed

Carter Lou Fuoco

Inspector Hearne Randall Lawrence-Hurt

Janet MacKenzie Sandy Armstrong

Dr. Wyatt John Pease

Mr. Clegg Matthew Lundergan

The Other Woman Melody Martin

Clerk of the Court Michael Lin

Plain-Clothes Detective/Policeman Daniel Kasenberg

Warder Lucas Commons-Miller

1st Barrister Joana de Sousa

2nd Barrister Matthew Slepin

“Witness for the Prosecution” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.