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Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: St. Louis

The Unexpected Guest
Clayton Community Theatre


Robert Stevenson and Kelli Rao
A beautiful woman stands in the dark, with a gun in her hand—over her husband's dead body. And she readily confesses to his murder. That's the set-up to this 1958 show, a whodunit where (seemingly) we already know "whodunit."

The open-and-shut nature may remind you more of Erle Stanley Gardner than of the actual culprit in this case: the queen of mystery, Agatha Christie. But two hours later, the trippy ending (with its overlapping, possible solutions) goes by with the rhythm of some riffling card trick, before your very eyes. It's almost like "Death on the Nile" or the legendary "Murder on the Orient Express," with all the variations presented in the wrap-up.

And yet, this one doesn't require a Hercule Poirot to keep things straight—or even any great confessional moments, where possible suspects are ground down to ruins by the tragedies in their own lives. Instead, we follow Kelli Rao, who is excellent as the British femme fatale, and Robert Stevenson, equally great as a passing stranger who comes to her aid.

There is a police inspector (Joe O'Connor, underplaying magnificently), and Mr. Stevenson (as Michael Starkwedder) does his own share of probing too, in a household where a former big-game hunter has declined into what Coleridge once called "motiveless malignancy" before he's finally put out of everyone else's misery.

Other standouts in the cast, under the direction of Nada Vaughn, include the terrifically mysterious David Hawley as a male nurse with an eye toward blackmail; handsome Joshua Rodewald as an ambitious British politician with a scandal to sweep under the rug; and Marilyn Bass-Hayes as the victim's mother—who has her own plans to sew everything up near the end.

There are, admittedly, a few weak moments in this otherwise fine production. And yet it's the strangest thing—now and then you sit there thinking, "well, that's just not very convincing at all" (for a total of maybe eight or nine minutes combined, in the entire two-hour-plus experience). But, because it's an Agatha Christie murder mystery, another explanation soon begins to dawn on you: "Maybe those few, odd, tinny moments are supposed to look fake!"

In the end, it's the strangest thing, the way suspicion creates hall of mirrors in our minds, as the audience. Christie supplies plenty of simmering and stilted interludes of suspicion and frustrated desire. And, overall, it's a very pleasantly baffling evening.

Time and reality, and even the parallel universes of our own perspectives, get all wrapped around each other in the final moments, as the details we'd utterly forgotten about come roaring back all at once. The sensation is not unlike that nightmare where it's the final exam in high school, and you don't even remember ever going to that particular class in the first place.

Through May 4, 2014, at the old CBC prep school, across from the Esquire and Schnucks, at 6501 Clayton Rd. For more information visit www.placeseveryone.org.

On an unrelated note, a terrific little musical from last summer is being revived at Westport Playhouse, after it's initial run at Stages St. Louis. Always... Patsy Cline features the original, outstanding two-women cast. For more information, visit www.stagesstlouis.org or go to our 2013 theater review.

Cast of The Unexpected Guest
Michael Starkwedder: Robert Stevenson
Laura Warwick: Kelli Rao
Mrs. Warwick: Marilyn Bass-Hayes
Jan Warwick: Zachary Cary
Miss Bennett: Mary Klein
Sgt. Cadwallader: Katie Schares
Inspector Thomas: Joe O'Connor
Henry Angell: David Hawley
Julian Farrar: Joshua Rodewald

Crew
Director: Nada Vaughn
Assistant Director: Paula Trammel
Stage Manager: Maureen Highkin
Set Designer: John Cooper
Master Carpenter: Mark R. Choquette
Scenic Artist: Vicki Hoffmeister
Costumer: Jean Heckmann
Props Acquisition: Sarah Hart
Props Assistant/Run Crew: Rose Wegescheide
Lighting Designer: Nathan Schroeder
Light Board Operator: Jen Ciavarella
Sound Designer: Tom Bell
Sound Board Operator: Betsy Jones
House Manager: Kenny Trammel
Box Office: Ellen Schroeder


Photo: John Lamb


-- Richard T. Green