Review
CHIMNEYS
Vertigo Mystery Theatre
Starring David McNally, Stephanie McNamara and Peter Skagen
Written by Agatha Christie
Directed by John Paul Fischbach
Runs until November 9
The Playhouse (Tower Centre)
At last week’s gala première of Agatha Christie’s Chimneys, the author’s grandson Mathew Prichard congratulated Vertigo Mystery Theatre on its bravery in opening a new venue with a never-before-seen play. He’s right – it is a brave act, and artistic director John Paul Fischbach and his company pulled it off without a hitch, mainly by playing it safe.
Who could blame them, especially with the eyes of the international media, not to mention Prichard and other Christie experts, trained on the show. Yet Chimneys will hardly go down in the records as a memorable production – Fischbach, who is usually an imaginative director, has opted to handle this unearthed antique with excessive care.
It’s a bit of a shame. This is such an old-fashioned play that it could use some large, witty performances to animate it, but Fischbach keeps his actors on a tight leash and confines them to morsels of mild comic business at best. Even the cute little doggie that appears from time to time seems to have been instructed not to steal any scenes. Only Grant Linneberg, doing a parody of a gruff Balkan peasant, is allowed to take a bite or two out of John Farwell’s elegant scenery – perhaps because his character is such an unabashed cartoon.
However, despite the fact that it remained unproduced for 70 years, Chimneys is not one of Dame Agatha’s rare lemons. She seldom stumbled except when venturing beyond her genre (such as in her "straight" drama Verdict), and here she’s in full command. It may not be in a class with her whodunit classics, but Chimneys is a modestly diverting period piece that’s part murder mystery and part Prisoner of Zenda romance, set in the grand English country manor of the title but involving political struggles over a bogus Balkan country called Herzoslovakia. The parade of stereotypes includes a dashing hero with a mysterious past, an adventure-loving heroine who thinks being blackmailed is jolly fun, pompous politicians, an unflappable detective and – typical of Christie’s xenophobic comedy – lots of sinister foreigners with funny accents.
If the acting isn’t outstanding, it is certainly up to the mark. Playing hero Anthony Cade, a role apparently intended for the young Laurence Olivier in the play’s aborted 1931 production, David McNally comes off more like a British Robert Downey Jr., but he provides the requisite swagger and charm. Stephanie McNamara’s posh heroine is lively and Peter Skagen as Supt. Battle of Scotland Yard has both the right lower-middle-class accent and the right dry, laconic manner – although he gets perilously close to underplaying the part.
Standing out among the supporting ranks, Hal Kerbes scores comic points as an easily flustered politician, as do Brian Gromoff as Lord Caterham, the amiable, golf-loving master of Chimneys, and Emily Talia as his sparky daughter Bundle.
Farwell, like Fischbach, is usually more adventurous, but his set designs for the manor’s Oriental-flavoured council chamber and its adjacent library are still impressive, as is David Nielsen’s lush orchestral score.
Last but not least, there’s the new Playhouse itself, a handsome 350-seat theatre with a proscenium stage and raked auditorium that’s in a class with the venues down the road at the Epcor Centre. In fact, Alberta Theatre Projects may well envy its sightlines and Theatre Calgary its intimacy. |
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