“I first read an Agatha Christie mystery when I was 11,” says Bernadette Nason, the UK-born actor who plays Christie’s iconic detective Miss Marple in Different Stages’ current production of A Murder is Announced. “And it wasn't recommended reading or anything, but my mum had a collection, and the first one I read was The Murder on the Orient Express, and it got me hooked on Hercule Poirot. And then years later I found Miss Marple books, and by that time the TV had begun showing presentations of various different English actresses playing Miss Marple. And so I watched some of those and then I went to the books and read all of the books. I have in fact read all Agatha Christie's books, even the ones that aren't mysteries.”
I wasn’t aware that Christie had written any non-mystery books, but Nason dropped some knowledge on me. “Oh, yes, she wrote romantic novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.”
With her Agatha Christie bona fides confirmed, Nason seems a natural fit to play Marple for Different Stages, even if she and director Norman Blumensaadt don’t agree on their favorite TV Marple. “My favourite is Joan Hickson, who really is the silver-haired, doddery, steely blue eyes [version],” Nason says, “and she was Agatha Christie's favorite. Your favorite, I think, is Julia McKenzie, is that right?”
“Yeah, Julia McKenzie,” Blumensaadt confirms. McKenzie’s version of the character is a bit more recent, and the adaptations she starred in were a little faster-paced and, to Nason at least, a little less faithful to Christie’s novels.
Perhaps ironically, this stage version of A Murder is Announced also differs a bit from the original book, but in this case, Nason’s glad. “The way [Marple’s] written in this play is not the same as the way she's written in books,” she says. “And so it's actually easier for me to give it my own slant. The voice just seems to come out. I remind myself of one of my mother's neighbors, the vicar's wife, and she had a… sound of her voice which I think is coming through whether I want it to or not.”
“Different Stages has produced 5 or 6 different Agatha Christie plays,” Blumensaadt says. “And the audience loves these plays. They love sitting there trying to figure out who did it. They'll spend the entire time sitting there trying to figure out who did it. So, In many cases I think my job is to throw in as many false leads as possible, even if the adapter or playwright hasn't written them.”
“One of the fun things was trying to work out where Miss Marple is picking things up and keep it, holding on to it, so she can come back to it later and put it all together,” Nason says. “In the book, if I remember correctly, she actually has a list, a written list, and she's written all the different things on this list. But in the play, the audience is going to have to watch me as I listen and work out what I think is important and what isn't. And I'm trying to throw red herrings in there as well, just as Norman said. We don't want [the audience] to get it, and I don't think they will. And it's very entertaining. It's also very funny. So regardless of whether anyone works out who done it, they're just going to enjoy the interaction of the characters on the stage, I think.”
'A Murder is Announced' runs November 22 - December 14 at the VORTEX.
