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| Cast members of Spider's Web. Photo by Cathy Breen. |
Spider’s Web is a Christie play sitting there in the 1950s with phones that plug into the walls.
Updating this one is going to be difficult. Canberra Rep’s lively production under director Ylaria Rogers generates some good energy but is confused when it comes to some of the necessary period atmosphere which is part of Christie’s charm.
At its centre is an earnest and honest heroine, Clarissa (Sian Harrington), the second wife of diplomat Henry (Nathan McKenna) and stepmother to the intense young Pippa (Teresa Macguire who shares the role with Manasa Kannan). Clarissa has a tendency to fantasise rather than tell the absolute truth. She finds a dead body in their rented house and spends most of the play attempting to to explain and placate those who look for an explanation. The stories become more complex and fantastical.
Who is the murderer? Enter Inspector Lord (Leo Amadeus) and his trusty but mostly silent sidekick Constable Jones ( Sophia Bate) to interview the suspects. Choose from her guests: stolid Hugo (Anthony Mayne) and flirtatious Jeremy (John Whinfield) or her guardian the older Sir Rowland (Terry Johnson). Then there’s the eccentric gardener Mrs Peake (Adele Lewin) and the butler Elgin (David Bennett) and the mysterious Oliver Costello (Robert Weardon).
In other words, it’s a Christie full house.
The issue with this is style. Christie’s plays are very much of their time and place. This one nestles in the early 1950s, with a tinge of British post war privation. The mini skirt has not yet arrived. Yet Clarissa is wearing something pretty close to it and in red and with bright blonde hair. And a copper with long hair in a pony tail would not have been allowed. Wig or haircut for the actor. There are times when trying to update a period piece struggles to work.
Nonetheless Harrington leads the cast with a cheerfully clear performance and there are delights along the way. The house’s guests are clearly delineated, young Pippa steers an interesting course between brat and normal pre-teen and Lewin’s Mrs Peake is especially funny. The set (design by Sarea Coates) does all you would expect in terms of atmosphere and secret rooms.
It’s a long evening but fans of Christie will enjoy it.