Curtain Up (38 page)

Thank you for your friendly tip. Mrs Christie had already telephoned me and I explained that the ‘Whodunnit' part of ‘the Star' write-up was their idea, not mine.

All the printing is going out without any description of the play. It is merely billed as ‘the new play by Agatha Christie' . . . I bow to her wishes, but if the play is not a thriller and if it is not a ‘whodunnit', I am darned if I know what it is.
²⁷

The play opened its pre-West End tour at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on 5 February 1951. Agatha had attended rehearsals before setting off to Iraq with her husband, settling back into the pre-war routine where several months a year were spent accompanying him on his archaeological digs, but she arranged for the cast to receive flowers as a first night gift from her, requesting; ‘something rather exotic for Jeanne de Casalis'.
²⁸
Edmund Cork relayed the news to her of the play's successful opening, corresponding care of the British School of Archaeology in Baghdad: ‘You will have received Peter Saunders' cable saying the Hollow is a great success', he wrote a few days later. ‘There is no doubt at all
that it is by far the best yet, and we shall have to be very unlucky not to have a really long run in town, with all the attendant subsidiaries.'
²⁹
It is interesting to note Cork's eye for potential subsidiary exploitation, even at this early stage in the game, and the fact that he leads off with it before going on to discuss artistic matters, which would undoubtedly have been of more interest to his client. He would later write to her that ‘Repertory bookings for The Hollow are coming in marvellously – this is the real justification for the vicissitudes of theatrical production.'
³⁰

For now, though, the issue was de Casalis' performance. ‘Lady Angkatell is the perfect part for a natural droll,' wrote Cork, ‘and I am sure even you would have been surprised at what Jeanne de Casalis made of it. In fact, the only thing that bothered me on Monday night was whether the drama might not be sunk by the comedy. However there was a six hour conference after the show, with the result that there were no unexpected laughs on Tuesday, and the show seemed to have already got a nice balance. By the time we get to town in April it should be absolutely right.'
³¹
Cork explained that the ever-loyal Stephen Glanville had already been to see the play in Cambridge and that Rosalind, who lived in Wales, was expected to attend in Cardiff the following week.

Agatha responded a week later:

I am delighted about the play and even more delighted that Peter Saunders and Hubert Gregg don't want to play the thing only for laughs. That's where they are more intelligent than Bertie. If they can get Jeanne more or less kept under so that she doesn't run away with things, I think all should be well. Cambridge, of course, was bound to be appreciative, but Cardiff is pretty wet so it will make a useful contrast. Shall get a good blast of destructive criticism from Rosalind, I expect. If she says ‘not at all bad, mother' I shall go up in the air. How maddening that
I
can't see it. It's just got to be running in London in May.
³²

As it happens, Agatha's most fearsome critic appears to have very much enjoyed the performance, writing to Saunders somewhat belatedly,

Dear Mr Saunders,

I must write and tell you how much we enjoyed The Hollow. Our seats were very good, thank you, but I am sorry that you didn't come down to Cardiff.

I thought most of the cast were very good – Henrietta was a particularly pleasant surprise! She was just right. Gerda was good particularly at the end but I think she was inclined to overdo being clumsy and stupid to begin with. Jeanne de Casalis was very good and very funny I thought – not quite Lady Angkatell but that doesn't matter – Sir Henry was good but we didn't like Edward much. He looked all right but he wasn't very sympathetic. He has a loud assertive voice and sticks his chin out and would certainly never shoot himself. That scene is easily the worst part of the play in my opinion. It looks quite ridiculous when he attempts to shoot himself and made me feel quite uncomfortable. Otherwise I think Hubert Gregg directed it excellently. It goes quickly and never drags at all. He is not as unlike John Cristow as I had imagined he might be. We both thought when he is just about to be shot that he said ‘Gerda' first – I know of course that he doesn't but it
sounded
like he did. The Inspector was very good, but a little indistinct at times – he slurs his words together – the maid had a very funny face! Veronica was quite good and Midge I think was good. She is very attractive and I think could be even more like Midge than she is. Her clothes aren't quite right in my opinion.

Anyway we thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope it really does well.

Yours sincerely,

Rosalind Hicks

I'm sorry I forgot to post this last week!
³³

Clearly relieved, Saunders responded,

Dear Mrs Hicks,

Thank you so much for your letter. As I didn't hear from you I was wondering whether you were quite appalled at the production, and had written to your mother telling her to cable Bertie Meyer forthwith!

When you saw Gerda she had already been toned down in the first two acts, and since then Hubert has gone even further in making her a little less sub-human.

Jeanne de Casalis is not and never will be Lady Angkatell. But I do feel that the one thing lacking in this play is a personality such as Poirot or Miss Marple, and I am hoping that Jeanne will be a substitute.
³⁴

He went on to suggest that the scene she did not like would benefit from a rewrite, and reassured Rosalind that Midge would in any event be re-costumed for the London opening: ‘Apart from the star one does not provide clothes for the women until the West End, in case there are changes of cast.'

There is no copy of Rosalind's letter to her mother in Baghdad, but she evidently had expressed many the same opinions that she had to Saunders, eliciting the response:

Very pleased to get your letter about the play – if on the whole
you
wouldn't have any one changed, it must be more or less all right. Glad you thought Henrietta good – Stephen didn't – but Beryl was madly nervous and constantly in tears and probably didn't do herself justice in Cambridge. At rehearsal I thought she and Joan Newell were very good in end scene – and you say so too – and
that's
very important. I think Hubert is on the watch to keep Joan Newell from going too far – He is a good producer [i.e. director] – streets ahead of Reginald Tate [director of
Murder in the Vicarage
].
³⁵

But despite the tour's success Saunders was having difficulty in securing a West End theatre for the production. A few weeks later Cork wrote to Christie:

It has been very difficult indeed to get a suitable West End theatre for it, however, the people who control several of the smaller theatres do not seem to think it is the sort of show that should be put on at an ‘intimate' house, while we are quite sure on this point after seeing the effect of the vast Wimbledon stage – it was a good show there, but not the superlative attraction that it should be. The result of the negotiations is that Peter Saunders has definitely got a line on the Fortune – against no less than thirty-eight competing shows – and he plans to open during the first week in June. The Fortune would not have been my first choice, as there is very little casual business there, but it is a nice little theatre and can play to £1,600 a week – which would suit us very nicely – and what is by no means unimportant, it will come on after your return.
³⁶

In his autobiography, Saunders writes:

It was impossible to get a theatre at the time, and I find that in writing to Agatha Christie I told her that there were thirty-eight plays waiting to come into London. I suspect this was a gross exaggeration. So after eight weeks on tour I called it off and re-cast three parts. The Fortune theatre, which no-one wanted, was going to be available from June until the end of September, which in those days was the worst time of the year . . . Agatha had written from Baghdad hoping that I would not open the play in the summer, but again this remarkable lady accepted the fact that there was nothing else I could do.
³⁷

Saunders notes that the manager of the Westminster Theatre liked the play and was keen to provide a home for it, but that the theatre's owners insisted they would rather close and go dark than take the production. The lease on the Westminster had recently been taken over by Reandco, and the first play hosted by them there had been their own production of Lesley Storm's hugely successful
Black Chiffon
, starring Flora Robson.
The man who objected so strongly to
The Hollow
was none other than E.P. Clift, Alec Rea's business partner. Reandco's last Christie production having been the less than satisfactory
Murder on the Nile
, it may simply have been that they had lost faith in her as a playwright. Or perhaps Reandco, who had produced work in partnership with Tennents, had no desire to ally themselves with Saunders.

The production reopened in Nottingham on 14 May 1951 and completed a three-week tour prior to opening at the Fortune on 7 June. The opportunity was taken to recast the actors playing Midge and Sir Henry, and Hubert Gregg also left the company, in order to take on the role of Prince John in Disney's film of
Robin Hood
. He remained director and, once again, his peculiar brand of meticulous pedantry appears to have served the work well. Cork had reassured Christie that ‘Hubert Gregg has been caught up by some film commitment, and had to give up the part of Cristow, but he will be available to do his producer's stuff, and in fact you really have got your own way in having him able to devote himself wholly to that side, without an actor's little vanities creeping in.'
³⁸
He believed that the new actors were an improvement and lamented that the actress previously playing Midge just went ‘down and down. She never reproduced that emotional quality that we admired at the first reading . . .'

Far from fighting off thirty-eight other productions, Saunders had actually been offered the Fortune for
The Hollow
, sight unseen, the previous year; he even mentions it in his application to the Arts Council. Despite technically being part of the Group (Prince Littler himself was listed as managing director) it was one of the least in-demand of the West End theatres, being used by amateurs for several months of the year.

On the night
The Hollow
opened in the West End, the thirty-five plays and musicals competing for audiences included Tom Arnold's production of Ivor Novello's
Gay's the Word
, starring Cicely Courtneidge, at the Saville and Farndale's production of
Worm's Eye View
, which had moved to the Comedy Theatre and was in its sixth year. Celia Johnson and Renee Asherson
were appearing in
Three Sisters
at the Aldwych, Donald Wolfit could be seen in
His Excellency
by Dorothy and Campbell Christie at the Piccadilly, Terence Rattigan's
Who Is Sylvia?
was playing at the Criterion and Peter Ustinov was starring in
The Love of Four Colonels
at Wyndhams.

On opening night
The Stage
carried a report about a talk given by Christie on the forthcoming production. There is no record of where this talk was given, or to whom, but Christie appears to show none of her legendary shyness when it comes to discussing her forthcoming play. As ever, it is the issue of Poirot on stage that is her principal concern. Under the heading ‘New Style Detective', the article announces:

When Agatha Christie's new play,
The Hollow
, opens at the Fortune to-night, Thursday, she will introduce a new kind of stage detective. So far as the theatre is concerned, Miss Christie's celebrated Poirot has been ‘killed', chiefly because of the difficulty of casting him. ‘Poirot will still appear in my books,' Miss Christie said in a talk, ‘but I have a new detective for theatre purposes. I found that the difficulty of casting such an individualised character sometimes spoiled his effect in the theatre. Although the artists concerned gave excellent performances, some of those who had known him in my books had different views as to how he should look! The detective in
The Hollow
is, I think, a more usual sort of person, at least so far as appearance and personality are concerned. As he will be new to audiences, whether they have read my books or not, it should be possible for him to establish himself without undue difficulty.' Miss Christie's new play attempts to combine real-life characterisation and atmosphere with its thriller elements. ‘It is more of a murder-drama set in ordinary social surroundings than a Who-done-it?' she explained. ‘I believe that the more firmly you place your plot in everyday surroundings, and have characters with a life of their own, the more effective your drama will be. It is a limitation to have to rely entirely on your thrills or surprises. I have tried to make my detective as natural as
possible, both in himself and in his methods. After all the ‘private investigator' isn't much known in real life, apart from divorce matters.'
³⁹

Poirot's replacement, the diligent, methodical and rather colourless Inspector Colquhoun, certainly runs no risk of upstaging the characters who Christie is really interested in.

Despite Gregg's claims to have won the day as a result of his application of directorial thriller gimmickry, Christie must have been gratified to see the West End reviews recognising a quality of realism in the writing. ‘Full marks to Miss Christie,' said the
Evening Standard
, ‘
The Hollow
is in fact that rarity; a thriller about reasonable and interesting people, intelligently and credibly acted.'
⁴⁰
The
Evening News
concurred: ‘“Keep the secret locked in your hearts” said Jeanne de Casalis at the curtain-call of
The Hollow
by Agatha Christie . . . but I think, even knowing “whodunit” I might nerve myself to sit out this play again because of the highly entertaining dialogue and the penetrative character-acting with which it is adorned.'
⁴¹
J.C. Trewin, writing in the
Illustrated London News
, commented, like
The Times
, that the opening scene dragged a bit, but noted that