Murder, Margaret & Me
by Philip Meeks
Directed by Damian Cruden
Salisbury Playhouse with York Theatre Royal production
Salisbury Playhouse
Friday, 2nd February 2018 19.30
CAST:
Kate Brown – Agatha
Tina Gray – Spinster
Sarah Parks – Margaret
The play originated as a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 as Murder, Marple and Me, was repeated in 2013, and went on to London and New York, then to tour. Along the way, Philip Meeks re-wote it (twice apparently) going back to his original concept of a cast of three, and renamed it Murder, Margaret & Me. The new version was produced in 2017, and again is here in another production in a 2018 Salisbury-York co-production , a combination which sounds somewhat episcopate.
The story centres on the actress, Margaret Rutherford, the amateur sleuth Miss Marple in five early 1960s films, and her relationship with Miss Marple’s creator, Agatha Christie. Rutherford wanted nothing to do with Christie’s whodunits which she considered sordid, not that she’d ever read one. We find out why in this play.
Christie had envisaged Miss Marple as a tiny bird-like woman (based on her grandmother) and was horrified at the casting of the lumbering Rutherford. Rutherford had established herself in comedy in the theatre and films, and Noel Coward had written the part of Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit with her in mind. She had also been a definitive Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest. Christie was not pleased at some Miss Marple scenes played broadly for laughs. The play defends that aspect … it was the director and producer’s choice, and Margaret Rutherford’s face intrinsically got laughs … in the play she says that if her face was placed among church gargoyles, then the gargoyles look like Audrey Hepburn in comparison.
I was never a fan of Agatha Christie, and have never placed my bum on the ludicrously overpriced tour seats for The Mousetrap, so still don’t know whodunit. However, the amount of money the BBC spent on Miss Marple, and ITV on Poirot, together with other one-off Agatha Christie novels at Christmas, meant that they became (almost) required viewing, though the tedious explanation scene at the end always irritated me.
Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple
Joan Hickson as Miss Marple
Conceptually, I’m interested in this take on a 1960s offscreen drama. While for years Margaret Rutherford might have defined Miss Marple, she has long been totally eclipsed in the current imagination by Joan Hickson (fitting Christie’s original mental picture) who was Miss Marple in the BBC TV screenings of all twelve Miss Marple stories between 1984 and 1992. They were lavish productions, way more so than the films, and are still being repeated. Joan Hickson had once appeared with Margaret Rutherford in Murder, She Said. In 1946, she appeared on stage in Appointment With Death after which Agatha Christie wrote to her:
I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple. Agatha Christie.
The interest in early 60s Rutherford-era Miss Marple is somewhat arcane as a reference to me. I saw them, but don’t remember them. What next? The story behind those Edgar Lustgarten police B-movies we had to endure while waiting to see The Young Ones or Blue Hawaii? They were known among teens as the one you snogged through. Then you stopped to watch Cliff or Elvis. Is an early 60s story playing to the perceived age and interests of provincial theatre audiences? Having been involved with a series of late 60s novels, I certainly hope so. As Salisbury is following this in short order with touring productions of Quartet and The Importance of Being Earnest it looks as if they are predicting (or realising) audience age!
So to Salisbury, on the second day of its full month’s run. The stage is curtained right out to the platform with film spools decorating the edge. The play-in music is hits of 1961 … Connie Francis, Brian Hyland, after the interval Wanda Jackson. When the curtains open we see a film set with lights, and props are covered in dust sheets. There’s a tamarind tree (bare stage … a tree … where have I seen that, I thought). During the play the two stagehands gradually assemble Rutherford’s home, Nine Elms.
The opening scene
The story is that Agatha Christie herself turns detective to investigate a dark secret in Margaret Rutherford’s past. No plot spoilers, but I just looked on Wikipedia where the whole dark Rutherford secret … and it really is very dark … is presented as known facts. If you’re going to see it, I suggest holding off on checking Wikipedia until afterwards. Then Christie’s real mystery disappearance in 1926 also has a suggested reason in the play.
Margaret’s house. L to R Margaret (Sarah Parks), Agatha (Kate Brown), Spinster (Tina Gray).
The cast of three has a fascinating third character: the Spinster. “The Spinster” narrates and is mainly Miss Marple as Christie had originally envisaged her, and with her basket, Tina Gray looks just like Joan Hickson. Joan Hickson gets referenced in the play text … picking up on her having worked with Rutherford, and the Christie character says she wanted Miss Marple ‘diminutive and birdlike’ and casts a disparaging eye on Rutherford. The Spinster also has to take two other roles without any costume change: Miss Rutherford’s dresser, and a typist fan of Christie at a publisher’s reception. As authors we loved the collective noun introduced here “a defecation of publishers.”
Monologue to audience: Tina Gray as Spinster.
I also liked the very early 60s meal that Rutherford served to Christie using “condensed tomato soup.” I remember my mum using that in both tomato and mushroom varieties – it was advertised as Campbell’s Condensed Recipe Soup. Dilute it? Soup. Don’t dilute it? Recipe sauce. The mushroom one with chicken, sweetcorn and rice was considered haute cuisine in our house.
Some of the comedy is in reference to the unseen Rutherford husband, Stringer Davis, a real person who played bit parts in most of her films. He was always described here as off around Soho with “Johnny Gielgud” doing “what boys do.” The implication is that he was gay. There are some excellent moments, and they all happen when the three are interacting rather than giving a monologue (or rather two, with The Spinster as a hovering observer). I thought “tea at Claridges” was the highlight of the play and the point where Sarah Parks got easily the loudest laugh of the evening. I wanted much more interaction.
Tea at Claridges: L to R Agatha (Kate Brown), The Spinster (Tina Gray), Margaret (Sarah Parks)
The plot is how Christie and Rutherford came to finally appreciate each other’s talents.
Philip Meeks theatrical career once involved playing pantomime dames. This play has a lot of older women doing long monologues directly to the audience, which is what dames do. Rutherford’s final admission is done in verse, another pantomime dame tradition. Margaret Rutherford is played LARGE by Sarah Parks with constant facial contortions and gurning, but that is exactly what the original Rutherford did … she was a pastiche of herself. It’s hard to know how you could play it less … um, pantomime-like.
Sarah Parks as Margaret Rutherford
I thought Kate Brown was a superb, tall and headmistress-like Agatha Christie … solid laughter came from a couple of tiny arch looks at the audience by Agatha. There’s also a lovely little piece where she peruses Margaret Rutherford’s bookshelf, finding none of her books there. As she says, authors can spot their own name at a distance. When I did author tours local publisher’s reps always held up one of my books at the airport … as they all said, authors recognise their own covers at a hundred yards. In the play Agatha presents her own books to Margaret, who we realise is not going to read them. The props department will have been greatly aided here by the recent facsimile hardback editions of Agatha Christie novels.
The cast have to go from comedy-played-large roles to a serious, sad bitter-sweet end, and they accomplish that transition very well. As an advertised comedy, a nearly full house did not laugh very much at all on this evening. Odd quiet chuckles at most. It was only the second night, but as the play has little sharp dialogue interaction (which improves with time), so it should be about as it will be.
The second Act begins with Christie and Rutherford emerging through the gap in the curtains to address the audience in front of the curtain … a very pantomime thing to do. With the very tall Kate Brown as Agatha Christie, Hinge and Brackett came into my mind!
I have doubts about the basic dramatic concept. It reminded me of Peter & Alice by John Logan, also based on literary figures (Peter Pan, Alice Liddell), also debuting in 2013. In spite of that play having Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw in the lead roles, it was to my mind an abject failure. Again, it narrated more than interacted. I thought Murder, Margaret & Me a far better play than Peter & Alice. However, for a comedy thriller, it wasn’t very funny nor very thrilling, but we did find the story intriguing and that works whether you’re a crime fiction fan or not. Or whether you remember the 60s or not. It certainly has made a popular impact for a play of the last five years, and apparently is an AmDram favourite already.
So we were fascinated by the story, thought the cast excellent, and found ourselves discussing the story and theme at length afterwards. As a play though, we found it lacking in drama and too reliant on face to audience monologue.
**
LINKS:
SARAH PARKS
Death of A Salesman, RSC 2015
Henry IV Parts 1 & II, RSC 2014
Henry V, RSC 2015 (Mistress Quickly)
Peter Viney's Blog 