Verdict review
Verdict, by Agatha Christie, is a play which moves away from her ‘who did it’ stories and explores more deeply the motivations of characters. The cast is small and the set is simple so as to focus the audience on the themes of the story; love, knowledge and power, and how the three are interwoven and ultimately drive all the characters in different ways.
The story centres on the Hendryk household where the professor, Karl, lives with his wheelchair-bound wife Anya and her cousin Lisa. All three struggle internally with Anya’s illness; while Anya feels a burden on her family, Karl and Lisa are torn between their love for her and for each other. There is a murder, as is inevitable in an Agatha Christie story, but we see it happen on stage and are left in no doubt as to whom the culprit is. Indeed, a confession occurs relatively soon afterwards, so the focus of the story remains the relationships between the characters, rather than any particular event. Extra drama is added when the wrong person is accused by the police – a fatal error considering that the death penalty was still in place in 1958, when the piece written.
Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) plays Lester Cole, a student of modest means who has a thirst for education. Matthew is very sympathetic in the role, if a little too earnest in his delivery of lines. Being that this is his first role on stage, it is understandable that he might struggle with projection from time to time, getting a little shout-y at points, but he seemed to relax and perform more naturally in the second half, something which suggests to me that through touring with the production, Matthew can only go from strength to strength.
The list of current and future dates and locations, all in 2011, are as follows:
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Review: Verdict 
