Witness For The Prosecution
There’s been a murder! (Thank God, it would be one hell of a boring Agatha Christie without at least one stiff staining the rug)
The victim? Rich. I’m sure there are plenty of other charming characteristics of the former Miss French (maybe she’s a champion tiddlywinker or plays the kazoo at a grade 8 level?) but, narratively speaking, her bulging bank balance is the only thing worth mentioning. Before her violent demise she had taken a shine to our main suspect and accused, Leonard Vole. Foolish and naïve, his undeniable charm alone can’t get him out of this fine pickle.
Crafted by the eternally popular Agatha Christie, Witness for the Prosecution started life as a story before translating to stage and screen. We all know her work - you may never have read a Marple book or caught a repeat of Poirot on ITV 3 on a dull Sunday afternoon but you still know her. Mistress of mystery with the deft ability to pen an intricate tale, she crafted countless twisting and intriguing stories. The genre itself is filled with clichés that have since been used and parodied but they all started with her. This show itself plays nicely with the well known tropes (suspicious foreigners, characters faking accents, deceitful women, a rich inheritance etc) and takes its audience through twists and turns from the beginning to the end. Unlike most Christie’s you may have seen, the plot doesn’t concern itself with the gathering of clues, the building of a case and a final dramatic reveal in a drawing room by a pedantic Belgian – here we have the sombre offices of defence Barrister Sir Wilfred Robarts QC and the court room where Leonard Vole is being tried. Witness after witness is called and examined and two different pictures of the defendant are slowly revealed. We as the audience sit in as the jury and must decide between these two pictures; is Vole an innocent who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time or is he a manipulative and cold blooded killer? Last minute evidence may hold the answer, or may be yet another twist.
Largely it’s a slow play where lots of old white men sit around talking. More specifically it’s an intriguing and gradual build as details of the night of the murder are slowly revealed and challenged as two legal rivals go head to head. At times in the court room of The Old Bailey it feels like it’s all a bit of a game to these key players, an intellectual challenge to the barristers. These feelings are nicely contrasted by the scenes in the QC’s office - we see their humanity and concern for their client.
A succession of witnesses take the stand and tell their stories of the night. For each one, their credibility is called into question and they are all revealed to have hidden agendas and ulterior motives – can any of them really be trusted? An amateur production is an interesting place for a plot that plays with the idea of unreliable witnesses - does this untrustworthy narrative stem from the character or the performance? The actors performed admirably but any level of ambiguity helps add more depth to the mystery.
As with all of her work, Christie imbued this with a great deal of humour and lightness to offset the peril the defendant is in and the balance makes for a compelling story and an entertaining show. Also, I totally guessed the ending – anybody who says I didn’t guess the ending is a liar. And the ending of Lost, I guessed that too. And Sixth Sense, guessed the ending. Totally guessed it, yep, definitely.
In the void left by the acquittal of Helen Titchener on the Archers, if you need another nail-biting court case why not head down to The Maddermarket Theatre this week.
