Lady Tressilian grudgingly agrees to this set of incompatible guests. He proposes to bring both his new wife, Kay, and his former wife, Audrey, to visit at the same time – a change from past years.
Tennis star Nevile Strange, former ward of Lady Tressilian’s deceased husband, incurs her displeasure. Verner also uses the well-known and notable Superintendent Battle to lead the murder investigation.īy all accounts Christie’s adaptation is a more ambitious and dramatic piece of writing however Verner’s play is structurally strong and provides a faithful and well realised adaptation of Christie’s original novel.Lady Tressilian is now confined to her bed, but still invites guests to her seaside home at Gull’s Point during the summer.
In place of McWhirter, Verner employs the shrewd and insightful Mathew Treves, a lawyer who is now house guest and confidant to Lady Tressilian. His interactions with Audrey are perhaps the most profound of the play – allowing Christie to explore thematically the notions of mortality, suicide, depression and even redemption. Angus McWhirter is perhaps the most important character missing from Verner’s text but makes a very significant contribution to Christie’s original. Moreover, the setting is different Christie’s is set open air on the terrace of Lady Tressilian’s house whereas Verner’s takes a more familiar path and is set in the drawing room.īoth plays contain a familiar core group of characters however there are some important roles that differ. Christie’s adaptation is a three-act, five-scene drama set over eight days with thirteen actors whilst Verner’s version is again three acts but with six scenes set over seven days involving eleven actors. However, there are some important distinctions between the texts. Both explore the idea that murder shouldn’t be the beginning of a story but the end. The events of both plays explore how the characters, through their various interactions move towards a ‘zero hour’ of murder. However, a few years ago, it was discovered that Agatha Christie had in fact written her own stage adaptation of the novel which was commissioned by the Shuberts in 1944 and we present both plays as part of The Collection.īoth versions of the text follow a similar narrative pattern. Arguably the best known adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel, Towards Zero, was that of prolific writer, Gerald Verner, in 1956.
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