Agatha Christie’s Love from A Stranger started life as short story called – rather unexcitingly - Philomel Cottage. Later she dramatized it as The Stranger, but it was never performed on stage. Then in the mid-30s Frank Vosper, a stylish actor known for playing handsome cads, rewrote it as Love from a Stranger and took on the role of the eponymous stranger himself in London’s West End.
The set-up for the story is a simple one. Cecily Harrington (an excellent Helen Bradbury) has, along with her friend Mavis Wilson (Alice Haig), won a substantial sum of money. Her rather dull fiancé Michael Lawrence (Justin Avoth) is on the verge of returning from the
Into the mix comes the stranger who is at the centre of the play, a charming Bruce Lovell (an unsettling Sam Frenchum) who sweeps her off her feet. Cecily breaks off her engagement and by the time the second half of the play opens she and Bruce have bought themselves an idyllic cottage in the country to live their happily ever after – except of course this is an Agatha Christie tale so of course it’s a lot more complicated and nasty than that.
I won’t say anything more about the plot, but suffice it to say that director Lucy Bailey (who has updated the play to the 1950s) and the cast have done a terrific job in bringing it to life. Even the stage set is unnervingly deceptive (you will see what I mean if you watch it), and sudden light changes and discordant music add to the unnerving atmosphere.
It being Agatha Christie, it is hard to know if any of the characters can be trusted, even the annoying Aunt Lulu hilariously played by Nicola Sanderson, the gardener Hodgson (Gareth Williams) forever in and out with flowers, and the put-upon cleaner and cook Ethel. And then there’s a Doctor Gribble, and as any Agatha Christie aficionado knows, never trust a doctor – or indeed anyone else until the final denouement.
Talking of denouements, my wife and I came away with lots of questions in our heads about what had actually happened. We also came away agreed that this was a terrific production, possibly the best stage version of an Agatha Christie play that either of us has seen. Do go, it is a real treat!