'Unexpected Guest' Has Clues, Many Diversions

Agatha Christie's grip on suspense was definitely loosening by 1958 when she wrote "The Unexpected Guest," another in her long, long line of whodunit murder mysteries set in remote country estates with a houseful of suspects.

Having gone to the same well so many times, she seems to have been grasping for some unique twist that would set this one apart. So she solves the mystery for us in the first two minutes. And then spends the rest of the play unsolving it and throwing red herrings at us like so much chum.

Any devoted Christie fan will have the mystery solved after the first few scenes. But, and perhaps this is her genius, that leaves a very long time to begin second-guessing, as the celebrated writer's penchant for misdirection gives one pause.

Even if you were originally correct, as you probably are, your mind remains engaged. And maybe Dame Agatha was not yet in her dotage after all.

Castaways Repertory Theatre has tackled "The Unexpected Guest" in what seems to be an annual trotting out of a Christie thriller. The past few tries have been less than thrilling. With this one, under the direction of Kevin Kirby, they finally seem to be getting a handle on the genre.

Kirby's cast is uneven, and there are a few clunkers onstage, but he mostly has his players in check with economical and effective performances. He allows tension to build and play itself out in a dynamic tempo that greatly enhances audience involvement. Although the setting is supposedly a foggy estate in Wales, Kirby plays down the English location and has jettisoned any thought of attempting English accents, freeing his actors to concentrate on acting and not linguistics.

Kirby apparently sees himself as a theater auteur, listing no fewer than 10 separate credits in the program. The direction is good, the set design is quite effective and nice to look at, the set seems soundly constructed, the sound design is evocative, the props are nicely picked and placed and, well, you get the picture.

Here's the plot outline: It is a dark and foggy night. A man (Carl Brandt Long) makes his way through a glass door into an unlit manor house study and almost stumbles over a body propped up in a wheelchair. He turns and flashes his light on a woman (Pamela Sabella) standing motionless in the dark, a large gun in her trembling hand. The dead guy is the husband, the woman with the gun is the wife, and the stumbling man is the guest who is not expected.

The wife says she shot her husband, and the only mystery left is how she and the stranger will conspire to cover up her crime.

Dame Agatha has written some long scenes in Act One that will have you saying to yourself over and over: "People just don't act this way. A stranger does not instantly involve himself in someone else's murderous activity. A murderer does not eagerly accept help from somebody who happens to just tumble through the window moments after a killing. A family does not accept that a stranger in their home has inserted himself into such a situation." It's all off-kilter.

Now you know Christie has to pull it all together in the end, to make the unfathomable necessary. Keeping that in mind will solve the mystery for you, provided you can suspend your disbelief at the way these people are acting. That, and the fact that the house seems alive, with doors that whoosh open by themselves and lights that turn themselves on and off.

The fickle finger of fatality points at the estate's seven denizens one by one, with two police officers on site primarily for comic relief. The plot meanders this way and that before coming to a sudden resolution that may be disappointing. But the journey to that point will be amusing.

"The Unexpected Guest" concludes this weekend, performed by Castaways Repertory Theatre at Ferlazo Auditorium in the Dr. A.J. Ferlazo Building, 15941 Donald Curtis Drive, Woodbridge. Showtime Friday and Saturday is 8 p.m. For information or tickets, call 703-508-5418 or visithttp://www.castawaystheatre.org.