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