The Queen of Crime is back in town this December to once again visit a little intrigue – and perhaps even murder – upon the English gentry. An invitation to The Hollow will have deadly consequences for one of Dame Agatha Christie’s doomed characters, but will no doubt prove delightfully entertaining for Calgary’s mystery connoisseurs, and may even be of interest for those who would not normally give Christie the time of day.

A season at Vertigo Mystery Theatre would never be complete without one of Christie’s "cosy" tales of mystery, and The Hollow is perhaps one of her finest. But are her plays relevant to a modern audience? According to Michel Houellebecq – bad boy French novelist who continues to flummox the French intellectual left, and unlikeliest of Christie fans if ever there was one – in The Hollow, "Christie achieves something beautiful, a sort of Dickensian sense of wonder."

Strong praise indeed. Is he speaking of the same Agatha Christie who is a favorite of little old ladies? He is. Although she carries a reputation for writing about staid, upper-class types getting into trouble, she was also a remarkable chronicler of the darker side of human nature.

In The Hollow, as one

a weekend gathering at the country home of Sir Henry Angkatell soon becomes awkward as unrequited and illicit lovers mingle over drinks and pistol-shooting – the latter being a rather ominous bit of foreshadowing. A Hollywood actress, a doctor with a disdain for sick people, and the scatterbrained matron of the estate are among the personalities in attendance at this doomed soiree. Sounds a bit like a set up for a reality TV show, doesn’t it?

First produced in London’s West End theatre district in 1951, it was Christie’s first stage success and played for nearly 400 performances. The undeniable popularity of The Hollow proved her work to be just as compelling in any medium and cleared the way for that great warhorse of the theatre, The Mousetrap, now in its 51st year and threatening to run forever.

Since that first production in 1951, The Hollow has had a number of incarnations. The Japanese, who were at one time mad for Christie (who knew?), translated and adapted the play for television, where it aired as Kiken Na Onna-Tachi, or Dangerous Women. More recently, it was a BBC television film starring the critically acclaimed David Suchet as Hercule Poirot (the original novel featured the quirky Belgian sleuth, but Christie subsequently removed him from the play, fearing that he would overshadow the drama). The production currently in rehearsal at Vertigo, however, promises to bring the play firmly back to its roots.

Directed by Patricia Benedict and featuring a cast of familiar Calgary actors, The Hollow promises to be a lively evening with the Grand Dame of Mystery.

And for those who dismiss Christie as a relic from a bygone era, perhaps you might take a second look at the seediness lurking beneath the smoking jackets and antimacassars.

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Contributor Aaron Coates |

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Topic Theatre | Vertigo Mystery Theatre |