The Unexpected Guest: A Review

“The Unexpected Guest,” directed by Mary Cutler, is playing at Theatre in the Round from now through December 22. This Agatha Christie original, which first opened in late 1958 at the Duchess Theatre in the West End, is everything that you want from one of the world’s most beloved mystery writers.

The tale begins with a dramatic tableau: a man, lost in a dramatic fog, stumbles into a stranger’s home where he finds a woman in red holding a gun and staring at her dead husband. Her husband has been shot in the head and is slumped in his wheelchair. Rather than call the police, the man is moved by the plight of such an “attractive woman” (he calls her this multiple times) and instead tries to recreate the crime scene so she might be absolved from the crime.

Of course, this is an Agatha Christie story, so twists and turns abound. I’ll stop there at risk of spoiling any of Christie’s carefully laid red herrings, but suffice it to say that this mystery keeps its audience re-evaluating facts and possibilities through the very last line.

Visually, I loved this play. John A. Woskoff designed an intimate set, comfortably cluttered with mismatched furniture, carefully curated bookshelves, a desk and a long bar overstocked with crystal tumblers. Karen Hokenson created several beautiful moments with the lighting, most notably creating three deliciously eerie silhouettes in that first, fog-infused scene.

Costume designer Mickey Foley created several stunning looks, with my personal favorites being Laura Warwick’s first-act red dress (kudos to Corinne Nobili for rocking what looked like a painfully high pair of stilettos) and Mrs. Warwick’s incredible split pea ensemble with the matching shoes.

Cutler has put together a lovely production, highlighting the strengths of her cast and organically orchestrating their movement around a stage (obligatory reminder that this play is at the Theatre in the Round) that can be difficult to block. As far as performances go, Robin Gilmer (Mrs. Warwick), Kathleen Winters (Miss Bennett) and Sam Sweere (Michael Starkwedder) were the standouts for me.

This leads me to the two aspects of “The Unexpected Guest” that I struggled with. The first had to do with casting and the second with the script itself.

I want to be sensitive to the fact that I have no knowledge of who auditioned for this play. I also want to acknowledge that many actors might not have the ability or desire to work at a community theater. Bearing that in mind, I was disappointed that not only were nine out of the ten actors in this production white but also that the only non-white cast member had the only non-speaking role. (Technically I believe this actor shouted a line or two from off-stage as the Constable, but when on stage as Richard Warwick, he merely sat dead in a wheelchair with a bullet wound in his temple.) I genuinely can’t decide which is worse: not casting any people of color in your show or only casting one and assigning them a role as a corpse.

The other aspect of the play that I struggled with was the writing. Although the bones of the story — the mystery itself — are very strong, the reality is that this play was written 66 years ago and not all of it stands the test of time. The script’s incessant misogyny and ableism made our audience visibly uncomfortable at times. Agatha Christie is, of course, a genius of the murder mystery, but I wish that TRP had either chosen a different play or pursued striking lines like “Women are always attracted to bullies” and scenes like the prolonged conversation about how people with developmental disabilities “get dangerous” as they get older because they “haven’t got a man’s judgment,” which apparently makes them homicidal.

Neither of these two elements ruined the performance for me, but both are worth noting. I very much want audiences to see this play, which again, is beautifully designed and full of twists and turns, but I also want audiences to know what they are walking into.

I recommend “The Unexpected Guest” to anyone who likes a constantly shifting mystery, gorgeous set and costume design and the intimacy of the Theatre in the Round.

You still have a month to see “The Unexpected Guest” at Theatre in the Round, which plays Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $20 with discounts available. Monday, December 2 is a pay-what-you-can performance, Sunday, December 8 features a post-show discussion, and Friday, December 20 is an audio-described performance.

Tickets can be purchased on the theater website, listed below.

www.theatreintheround.org/the-unexpected-guest