Theatre Review: The Mirror Crack’d

As someone who is not well-knowledgeable on Agatha Christie’s stories, I was intrigued to go watch The Mirror Crack’d at The Alexandra, even if I had no specifically high expectations of the play. Despite this, Agatha Christie’s adapted story exceeded any assumptions I did have – it was a gripping, emotional, fast-paced mystery that kept us all thoroughly engaged from start to finish.

it was a gripping, emotional, fast-paced mystery that kept us all thoroughly engaged from start to finish

The Mirror Crack’d tells the story of the well-loved fictional character Miss Jane Marple (Susie Blake), who helps her beloved friend, Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock, unravel the mystery of the death of Heather Badcock whose Strawberry Daiquiri was poisoned at a party. The Chief Inspector believes that someone intended to poison the famous American actress Marina Gregg, whose party it was, and the pair embark on a thrilling challenge to work out who was the murderer.

Adapted by Rachel Wagstaff (The Girl On The Train and The Da Vinci Code), this action-packed adaptation of Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d from side to side guides us through a thrilling story of emotions, revenge and dark secrets that will have you changing your mind on the ‘killer’ every five minutes.

The plot is intensely gripping the whole way through. The ‘detective’ pair are constantly going down a new lead which brings more depth to the play and keeps us as an audience guessing. At times, the play is slow and drawn out, with various scenes repeated to show a new angle as the mystery unravels, but this allows enough time for us to build up an understanding of each character’s story of the night of the murder. You’re constantly being kept on your toes; plot twists come in abundance in The Mirror Crack’d.

The plot is intensely gripping the whole way through

The second half was more fast paced, creating a chaotic atmosphere on stage, but this fitted in with the ‘murder mystery’ genre well and kept the audience engaged, especially when the play ran over by half an hour.

It was fascinating how they chose to just show fragments of the party the night before and not to start with the murder; this made it more intriguing to meet Miss Marple and wonder what was going on when the Chief Inspector arrived. While most of the action takes places at Miss Marple’s house (along with visions of the party during freeze frames and flash backs), we do shift from time to Marina Gregg’s home, Gossington Hall, and the filming studio too. The glass box in the centre of the stage acts as a part of each location, either a window or part of the house itself.

The staging itself is minimalistic with the glass box alongside chairs and a few tables and filming equipment etc. This allows for us to focus on the captivating characters without an overbearing stage design.

One of the elements I loved most about The Mirror Crack’d was how funny it was. I wasn’t expecting to be laughing every few minutes, but the characters, especially Miss Marple and her closest friend, Dolly Bantry, would come out with amusing one-liners and have little ‘banter’ comments between them which made the audience roar with laughter many times throughout the play.

…the audience roar with laughter many times throughout the play

The characters themselves were enjoyable to watch, not only with their intensity and comedic parts, but they were all engaging and believable. As I’ve mentioned, the play allowed enough time for us to get to know individual characters, to understand the connections and dynamics between them, and to let us make our own decisions on them. Miss Marple was by far my favourite character with her heart-warming, kind, and funny personality; Susie Blake played her extremely well.

The ending itself brought many plot twists – just when you thought the play was wrapping up, it shifted to another problem that felt never-ending. It took a while to get to know who the murderer was but when we did find out, I sensed a few gasps in the audience. It was certainly a well-thought-out shock.

Overall, The Mirror Crack’d is an enthralling guessing game of ‘who-done-it’ which keeps you hooked for the whole of the play. The plot is exciting and fast-moving, the characters are intriguing, funny and have emotional depth, and everything about this play has been crafted effectively to keep the audience engaged. The whole production should be proud of this masterpiece and I will certainly be keeping an eye out for future Agatha Christie stage adaptation.