The Unexpected Guest (Cherry Creek Theater)

Dear Agatha,

Last weekend my Ro and I went on one of our best dates ever!  We drove to Cherry Creek to watch the Cherry Creek Theater's performance of The Unexpected Guest.  I knew nothing about the play (except, of course, that you penned it), nothing about this theater group, nothing about Cherry Creek... all I knew was that we were in for a great time.

The "theater" itself was... interesting.  A local oriental rug store allowed the theater to use the space of their back room (or side room?) for their performance.  It was a bit odd to enter through a carpet showroom, use restrooms in the back that were pretty... um... shall we say, unimpressive?... and move through large carpet "curtains" into the "theater."  The producer even joked that they had the most expensive stage in all of Denver, the rugs composing the set worth over $92,000!  Once you got used to the very different environment, it worked well, actually, and seemed quite cozy, although many parts of the play took place with the actors seated, and we couldn't see that so well from where we sat.  I would guess that the space held about 100 seats, and all but a very small handful were occupied.  Other than the woman in front of us who seemed to think that the play was a comedy - and a hilarious one at that - we had a perfect time.

The play itself was, of course, wonderful!  And, of course, I did not guess correctly who the villain was on our little drawing slip at intermission.  (Neither did Ro!)   In fact, I did have a tiny suspicion of the who the villain was early in the play, but couldn't reconcile it in my mind and quickly dismissed it.  The ending - what a surprise - and brilliantly done!

The actors were magnificent.  Boy, every one of them was superb, from the largest to the smallest parts. I was very impressed.  I can even hear the accent of one of the characters in my mind now, several days later.

I noticed just before we left for the play that I have the novelized version of The Unexpected Guest by Charles Osborne on my bookshelf.  I look forward to reading it, and I'm sure that even if his ending is the same as yours, I will be surprised once again, as I am blessed with such a short memory.

For what it's worth, we paid $25 apiece for the tickets, and the venue was about an hour away.  We stayed overnight at a Holiday Inn near the airport as my Ro had an early flight.  The theater cast and staff would have done you proud, I think, Agatha... I know we had an amazing time.

Admiringly,
Beth

1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

Dear Agatha,

I read your first published novel last week, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.  Of course I loved it; it was great fun thinking I knew whodunit and of course, as usual, finding out that I am more like Hastings than the marvelous Poirot in the sleuthing department.

So I've done a little extra-curricular reading about you, Agatha.  I've learned that this wasn't your first novel, or even your first published work, although it is your first published novel.  What an impressive debut - and I'm so glad that your foray into detective work was with the creation of the marvelous, charming Hercule Poirot!

I also found that this book was written in challenge to a bet with your sister Madge!  How fun is that?  And that we have a couple of things in common, Agatha: our birthdays are only a week apart, and we both worked, in our young adulthood, in pharmacies.  At one time, I thought my pharmacy experience might make good fodder for a novel some day, but it would've unfortunately been more like a soap opera than The Mysterious Affair at Styles.  That said, the dispensary experiences you had were worlds away from mine... I guess 75 years and two different countries might account for some of that.

Finally, I read that about 10 years after this novel was published, a real-life murder was committed using the same tactics (though not actual method of murder) that the murderer of Emily Inglethorpe used!  Seems he might've been inspired by your book (Osborne, 17).  I wonder what your take on that was! 

Well, dear Agatha, it's just about time to meet Tommy and Tuppence in your next book.  I haven't yet read any of your books with them, so I'm excited to finally meet and get to know them.  Before I do, however, I will watch the movie version of Styles as soon as it arrives.  Coincidentally, I am reading your Autobiography as I go as well.  That's a big deal for me - to read two or three books at once drives my little gray cells mad. 

With great admiration,
Beth

The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival (ACRC)

Yes... another blog!  I am so excited to begin Dear Agatha... my reflections on the works and life of my favorite author, Dame Agatha Christie.  I saw a Facebook post on the Agatha Christie page last week that talked about the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival, and it gave me just the motivation I needed to start reading ALL of the books of Dame Agatha's I've been collecting over the past number of years.

So the ACRC blog carnival has two parts - the challenge and the carnival.  The challenge is to read all of Agatha's published works, and like the originator of this challenge, I will do it in the order of publication to the best of my ability.  The second part is to join the monthly blog carnival - which I will do if I remember and am so inspired. 

Ohhhh... I am so excited about this journey!  Here we go!