‘The Unexpected Guest’ brings ’50s mystery back to the stage

Cherry Creek Theatre will stage the mystery production of Agatha Christie’s 1958 crime-classic The Unexpected Guest. Director Rob Kramer, who has won numerous awards including the 2010 Henry Award for Best Director of a Play for Grace and Glorie at Miners Alley Playhouse, sets up the audience for a riveting theatrical experience in this rendition.

Kramer has performed in plays written by Christie before, but The Unexpected Guest marks his debut in directing one. He said The Unexpected Guest ranks at the top of the Christie canon because it’s less formulaic than many of her other plays.

The show begins on a foggy night in London. Michael Starkwedder comes upon the corpse of Richard Warwick in the study of the Warwick mansion and Mrs. Warwick is holding a gun. Sounds like an open and shut case. But the audience will be the judge.

Could she be protecting someone?

Of course everyone in the house has a good reason to kill Warwick, but each has an ironclad alibi as well.

Kramer said writers like Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock had repressed emotions and inhibited desires that they channeled as creative energy into the perverse stories that have riveted us for decades.

He said Christie was very repressed in her first marriage and used her writing as an outlet. The author’s fans may know that Christie once disappeared for over a week – to become liberated or perhaps to teach her husband a lesson.

At the time of Christie’s disappearance in the late ’20s, many worried the suspense writer had committed suicide. She was already famous and the news of her disappearance alarmed the entire world.

Christie never went into detail about what really happened during her disappearance. According to the British film The Life and Times of Agatha Christie, she suffered amnesia after a car wreck following her husband’s divorce filing.

And for Kramer, being able to bring Christie’s plays to life again is very exciting. When asked what he thought about the Shaver-Ramsey Showroom as a venue for the production, the director gushed. He spoke of the first time he attended a play in the space as if it were truly enchanting. He said the producers used beautiful hanging carpets to create a lobby and acting space. It was “as if he were in a private parlour in a Turkish Palace,” he said.

Comfortable and intimate, Kramer said the configuration of the space truly allows him to tell a personal story by showcasing the actors’ performances.

The cast includes a number of truly fine character actors: Christian Mast, Kelly Reeves, Deborah Persoff, Jack Wefso, Chris Kendall, Andrew Uhlenhopp, Boni McIntyre, David Blumenstock and Brian Murray. Persoff has received numerous awards for her acting and brings a wealth of talent to her role as Mrs. Warwick.

Kramer’s intent in his casting decisions was to bring in superb local character actors who would be able to elicit the phenomenal performances we all loved in Christie’s mystery films like Murder on the Orient Express.

The director promises his audience some of the best performances in the Denver theater season with this production.
Costume designer Rosemary Smith, is dressing everyone in the fashions that were popular in the 1950s.

The scenic design of The Unexpected Guest is minimal. A number of platforms will serve as the stage. Period furniture will transport us to the 1950s England.

‘The Unexpected Guest’ plays from October 7 – 30. On the Web at http://cherrycreektheatre.org or call  303-800-6578.

Did you know:

The number of productions of Agatha Christie’s plays done around the world is second only to those of Shakespeare.