Murder on Air, Whitley Bay Playhouse

Three short Agatha Christie radio plays performed in a radio studio setting with live sound effects.

I’m a crime fiction fan so I went along for a guilty dose of Christie and to have a peek at the new Whitley Bay Playhouse.

These weren’t Christie’s finest works – short stories with the requisite twist in the tale,  coupled with a  less than convincing turn from Roy Marsden as Hercules Poirot in one segment (hard to accept Adam Dalgliesh as Poirot!!).

The highlight was the staging – the links from contemporary radio broadcasts set the period,  the sound effects from the foley artist and from the cast were amazing. These also added a comedic dimension…I won’t spoil the ‘plot’ but if sitting in the front row, beware the flying shards of cabbage used as a proxy for a human skull during a murder scene.

It was good to see the new Playhouse, but none too hopeful to see that I probaby helped to lower the average age of the audience, and that for one of the few national productions that this theatre has attracted, the house was less than full.