Playwright: Agatha Christie
At: Drury Lane-Oakbrook Terrace Theatre,
10 Drury Lane, Oakbrook
Terrace
Phone: 630-530-0111; $22-$41.50
Runs through: Sept. 24
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
Yes, this is THAT play. The whodunit that ( along with The Mousetrap and Night Must Fall ) introduced the motifs so widely parodied nowadays: the isolated setting, the cross-section-of-society personalities, the hazardous weather, the sadistic psychopathic killer and his gruesome methods for the leisurely dispatch of his victims. Agatha Christie's allegory of an island nation recalling its recent wartime trauma—in particular, the tensions engendered by domestic realignment—transcended the sensibilities of its immediate audience to popularize the genre throughout the world.
The premise of this venerable classic should ring familiar: A group of visitors have been invited to a weekend party at a remote offshore beach house. It soon becomes apparent not only that the owners are missing, but that none of the guests have any first-hand acquaintance with their absent hosts or each other. As they puzzle over these circumstances, with a furious thunderstorm preventing escape ( while also providing conveniently-timed electrical power failures ) , a murderer claims his victims, one by one, by means suggested in the reductive nursery rhyme of the title.
But director Michael Halberstam is not content simply to replicate the shivery thrills and interclass prejudices of a half-century past. The notion of justice—a theme introduced by the inclusion of a judge and a policeman among the company—is heavily emphasized in this production ( or perhaps it is only our own times speaking to us ) . The slow decimation of this microcosmic community force the survivors to confront their own claims to guilt or innocence, and the degree of mercy each deserves. That the villain's motive turns out to spring from HIS interpretation of this principle affirms it.
A heavy-lifting ensemble ( featuring such regional favorites as Craig Spidle, Deanna Dunagan, Larry McCauley, Joe Van Slyke, Timothy Gregory and Carey Cannon ) hoists suspension-of-belief in volume as cumbersome as that required of its audience, their industry resurrecting all the freshness and suspense displayed by this mossy museum artifact at its premiere in 1944. The real stars of the show, however, are Brian Bembridge, Rick Sims and Bob Christen, who together create an ocean vista so meteorologically accurate, we can almost smell the salt spray.