The Secret of Chimneys
Writer: Agatha Christie
Director: Molly Haddon
Genesian Theatre
March 6 – April 17, 2021
An evening at the Genesian with Agatha Christie is always a pleasure, and the present production, The Secret of Chimneys, is particularly enjoyable. The context is England of the 1920s – the age of the “bright young things” – and the play is a heady and hilarious mix of frothy badinage, girl power, romance and political thriller.
The action is set in the reception room of the country home of the Caterham dynasty in which a large array of characters come and go, well managed by the expedient placing of three doors. The crimson and brown panelling of the reception room, portraits and heavy furniture gives a suitable impression of ancestral longevity and glass doors leading to a garden and frequent reference to parklands fill out the picture of an aristocratic estate. A third door serves to permit the often comical and frequent exit and entrance of the butler, and long-time family retainer, Tredwell (Rodney Stewart), whose countenance so often reflects knowledge of better and more noble times. He manages with effort to maintain the illusion of family decorum.
The narrative not so gently satirises the British establishment. Following the discovery of oil in the Republic of Herzoslovakia, the ostensibly democratic Britain is so anxious to secure consortium rights that it plots with exiled Herzoslovakian Prince Michael to restore the monarchy in return for the right to oil concessions. Caterham has been chosen as the meeting place for the Prince and British representatives to rendezvous under the guise of a house party. Neither the easily panic stricken George Lomax (Victor Moore) of the Foreign Office, whose waving arms and somehow nervous moustache indicate incompetency, nor the pale financier Banks (Thomas Southwell) looming in the background, remote and sinister, are figures to induce confidence in government policy.
The women gathered in the house are much more inspirational and resentful of the assumed authority of Lomax. The elderly and worldly-wise Lady Caterham (Sandra Bass) can’t abide politics or politicians and makes it clear she much prefers golf and gossip. Her well-brought-up and vivacious niece, Lady Eileen Brent (Dominque Nesbitt), known as “Bundle”, is eager to break out and shares with her aunt a liking for scandal. Lomax’s secretary, Billie Eversleigh (Abbie Love), cheerfully independent, clearly has a life of her own when she can escape the caprices of her boss.
Billie’s friend and guest at the house, sophisticated Virginia Revel (Rachele Edson), however, is more of a risk taker. When we first encounter her she seems to be possessed by a restless energy. She is looking for adventure and she finds it when she’s surprised by a tall, dark stranger (Hamish Macdonald) who tries to blackmail her about the contents of a letter. She knows nothing about it but in the spirit of an exciting game she pretends she does and agrees to his terms.
Throw into this house party the mysterious and debonair Anthony Cade (Patrick Tangye), a thrilling young man, with no visible means of support and previously known as Billie. Cade has come to Caterham on the vague mission of doing a favour for a friend but when, of course, a corpse is discovered, he is nervous under police scrutiny. As it turns out, he has a third name to which he confesses at the close and brings the tangled tale to its fairytale conclusion.
We have not mentioned the amazing Superintendent Battle (David Stewart-Hunter), beautifully played with the right degree of affable authority and wariness that characterises TV’s Inspector George Gently and the bizarrely amusing franglised English of Monsieur Lemoine (Jack Elliot Marshall) of the Sûreté. Nor the weirdly impressive antics of Boris Andrassy (also Hamish McDonald), the body servant of Herzoslakian royalty, and destined to be the next John Cleese.
The Secret of Chimneys is lovely fun. There’s a body, a stolen letter, a secret code, a hidden black diamond necklace and a missing person along with a gallery of wonderfully exaggerated and beautifully performed characters under the strong direction of Molly Haddon.
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