Agatha Christie’s Murder On Air

Christie’s work is always best when done in period and this amusing production takes the use of period to a second level. Staging radio recordings worked well for Round The Horne and works fairly well here, despite there being no real laughs, except of course for the fun of watching the sound effects being created and the inimitable Tom Conti’s facial expressions. Where it did suffer was a lack of clarity of sound in the first half, remedied to some extent in the final play. That said it was an amusing diversion. Christie’s plots are predictable now but fun all the same and the cast, for the most part, make the most of their vocal characterisations and the few opportunities they have to do something physical. I closed my eyes to see if I could get a feel of real radio and it worked, sort of. Which of course begs the question, why put it on stage? Perhaps better suited to a smaller and more intimate venue, this was an enjoyable curio.

Theatre Royal Brighton, 2 September 2014

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