Cheerio. Let us skip across the “pond” via The Black Box Theatre’s current production: Murder in the Studio a compilation of three 30 minute radio plays by the doyenne of mystery drama, Agatha Christie, directed by the BBT’s Lora Adams. Okay, enough of that.
The first in this trio of audio dramas is the arcane, Personal Call, the story of James Brent who receives an unsettling phone call from a woman claiming to be his deceased wife, Fay. His current wife, Julia, eavesdrops on a subsequent call from Fay and becomes entangled in the suspicious circumstances of Fay’s death one year prior. Is it Fay contacting him from the grave or a cruel impostor?
The second script is Yellow Iris, which marked the radio debut of one of Christie’s most famous sleuths, Hercule Poirot. Poirot is lured to the Jardin des Cygnes hotel where a wealthy American businessman has arranged a commemoration for his late wife who was murdered by a still at-large killer at that very place four years earlier and at which Poirot was also present. Can Poirot find the felon before he – or she – strikes again?
Last, there is Butter in a Lordly Dish, this 1948 script aptly takes its title from the Bible’s Book of Judges and was touted at the time as one of Christie’s most gruesome and horrifying murder plots. It involves a philandering British barrister, crime drama groupies, and one of the barrister’s latest paramours.
Adams has assembled a stellar cast of Quad Cities familiars that include Matt Walsh, Denise Yoder, Andrea Moore, Max Robnett, Jason Platt, Scott Tunnicliff, Tyler Henning, and Michelle Bailey. This is an ensemble cast that takes on multiple roles within each script, so there are no character credits in the program. Jason Platt, however, takes on the iconic role of Poirot. His talent is immense but his pseudo-French (more accurately the Belgian Walloon) accent and pronunciation was not his strong suit but it doesn’t matter; this production is an epic excursion for Golden Age of Radio nerds like me.
Making this even more engaging is that the audience gets to see how the low tech sound effects were created back in the day and massive kudos go to the cast as they share executing those sound effects. The timing of those effects is crucial and they pull it off without a hitch.
Murder in the Studio continues at The Black Box Theatre, 1623 5th Avenue in Moline, Thursday through Saturday, May 2nd through 4th at 7:30 p.m.
I’m Chris Hicks…break a leg.