THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609170129
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: 75 lines
The Little Theatre of Norfolk has begun its 70th anniversary season with a typical Agatha Christie mystery. ``A Murder is Announced'' has its expected complement of fatalities and supposedly unexpected plot twists, and it comes equipped with not one, but two detectives.
The plot, set as usual in a secluded English country home in which dramas of inheritance and sudden death are played out, begins with the appearance of an ad in the village newspaper that predicts the time and place of a murder.
Why curiosity seekers would converge upon the scene before the scheduled crime seems slightly baffling. If one really believed that some unknown soul would be killed in a particular place at a particular time, any reasonable sense of self-preservation would at least delay one's arrival until one could no longer be mistaken for the target.
If the writing was typical of Christie's style, the opening night show was not typical of the Little Theatre's quality. While some experienced performers acquitted themselves quite honorably, and one of them got away with delightfully wholesale scenic larceny, other performances presented conspicuous problems.
In all fairness, it's never easy to utter lines such as ``I haven't been purposefully non-cooperative'' or ``she could substantiate your deception'' with a straight face, much less with the conviction that gives dimension to a role.
The acting of veterans Wade Brinkley, Carol Chittum, Phyllis Guinazzo and Carol Loria might have anchored the show more firmly if any two of them had been told to approach the play in the same style.
Brinkley, as Inspector Craddock, was calm, realistic and matter of fact in his understatement. Chittum was camping up her character of the eccentric, scattered and elderly ``Bunny'' Bunner in a way that put everyone else in the shade early in Act 2.
Guinazzo began with a moderately high strung characterization of the threatened, mysterious Letitia Blacklock, then pulled out all the stops in the fashion of high melodrama as the piece reached its climax. Loria underplayed the eccentricity of Mrs. Marple until the amateur sleuth became almost mousy in her mundanity.
Every one of these four has done more consistent, well-rounded work in other plays, some by Christie and some under the guidance of the same director, Aaron McGlothlin.
Even when the four pros were at their best, the hard-working folks in secondary roles were often working way too hard. There was enough grimacing, even among the characters who weren't supposed to be poisoned, to make one think that half the cast had eaten tainted pork.
When the leads weren't being upstaged by gargoyles with gastritis they were contending with players auditioning for roles as rusty robot butlers. Perhaps opening night nervousness affected some of the performances, which will become more settled with time.
Then too, no fewer than five other shows were in rehearsal locally when ``A Murder is Announced'' was being mounted. With due respect for the unquestioned courage of all who take the stage in front of friends, family, strangers and critics, there must have been fearsome competition for the services of the most desirable performers.
McGlothlin knows his way around a theater and has directed plenty of shows. One can only speculate that the simple task of casting the piece, when so many other troupes were draining the local talent pool, occupied most of his directorial energies.
The volunteers who constructed Michael Thorpe's handsome set design deserve praise.
Whatever one thinks of this one show, there is no reason not to anticipate eagerly the rest of the Little Theatre's upcoming 70th season. MEMO: AT A GLANCE
WHAT: ``A Murder is Announced,'' by Agatha Christie, adapted for the
stage by Leslie Darbon
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and Sept. 27 and 28; and
2:30 p.m. Sunday, and Sept. 29
WHERE: Little Theatre of Norfolk, 801 Claremont Ave.
TICKETS: 627-8551 by CNB