Witness for the Prosecution

by Agatha Christie, directed by Philip de Glanville

20th – 22nd November 2014

The Club’s first Agatha Christie for a good many years, and we all thought ‘Witness’ was one of her best. It works particularly well on stage because it employs the natural theatre of the courtroom, and though it has its fair share of her famous red-herrings and misdirections, the plot is actually entirely fair and plausible, and the ending very satisfyingly unexpected. And since the success of the piece depends so much on the final twists and turns, the denouement was rehearsed ‘in camera’ very late on in the process and the actors involved were sworn to secrecy.

As the Committee had hoped, the audiences flocked in. In the end we had three virtually full houses, but the play also proved very popular with the large cast. There were 21 in all with speaking parts, and in addition quite a number of FDC members took part in the production by sitting in ‘the jury’, in the front two rows of the auditorium. Some entered fully into the spirit of it and dressed in period costume; they said afterwards that they got a great sense of being at the Old Bailey in the early 50’s and felt really involved!