... character, the overnight pick-up emerging in Act One from the hero's bedroom; there are enough plot twists to stisfy an Agatha Christie fan and neat performances enough, under Hugh Goldie's direction, to make some of the less inspired dialogue seem wittier ...

... I'll Be Back Before Midnight SALISBURY MIX generous helpings of Agatha Christie and Cold Comfort Farm, add a touch of the Marx Brothers and Hitchcock's Psycho, and you have the bizzarre flavour of I'll Be Back Before Midnight. The plot of this play ...

... came up with two cleverly observed dance and mime sketches, the first about gossiping women and the second about turning Agatha Christie into parody. A strong sense of vitality and dynamism emerged both from Rare Earth and the Contemporary Youth Dance Group ...

... senses with a furious mash of dance and visual imagery, but mis ume ne nas aooeo an extra strand. It is not quite Agatha Christie, but Murphy's new work is deftly underscored with a who dunnit theme. The set comprises two rooms divided by a thick wall ...

... bodies, Shakespearean allusions and funny one- liners. Now had he left it there as a pastiche of styles incorporating Agatha Christie and Coward it would have been a palatable product but his imagination is allowed to run riot at the expense of structure ...

... for the killing although several of these, especially that of the single mother, are more tenuous than any concocted by Agatha Christie. And, by the end, Munro seems to be imply ing that sex lies at the root of the whole sorry affair, with even the old bat ...

... Cracks OLDHAM AGATHA CHRISTIE must be tangoing in her grave if she knows that Martin Sherman based his Cracks on her who-dun-its. Premiered by Oldham Coliseum, this loony play gathers together on one stage all the so-called freakishness of schizophrenia ...

... imagination or are thrillers really getting sillier and sillier, raising laughs rather than goose pimples? In the old days of Agatha Christie it was at least possible to say something about the plot, because the trick then was to take a relatively straightforward ...

... The Business of Murder DUCHESS MURDER and mystery plays have become more complex since the days of Agatha Christie, when the important thing was just to keep the audience puzzled and to hell with the characterisation. Now thriller writers are not only ...

... Verdict HAYES AGATHA Christie said that Verdict was the best play she had written, with the exception of Witness For The Prosecution. In both she attempted to create three dimensional people, whereas her run- of-the-mill characters in most plays are ...

... than is advisable, is theatre at its most gripping, and Patrick Hamilton's dialogue matches the situation. Unlike, say, Agatha Christie, he demolishes the half- baked Nietzschean philosophy which is at the basis of the play, showing the killers as the immature ...

... piece of tongue-in-cheekery has had a good run. Surely something better could be found for a national tour. Or is the Agatha Christie label a necessary ingredient for a stage shocker? Helen Bnndle, Hugh Beverton, and Patrick Holt also bear up manfully ...