The Hollow

Background

In her Autobiography, Christie claimed that the success of And Then There Were None set her on the path of being a playwright as well as a writer of books and that only she would adapt her works for the stage from then on, and that The Hollow would be her next play. In writing this, Christie forgot her intervening plays of Appointment with Death (1945) and Murder on the Nile (1946), in addition to Moie Charles and Barbara Toy's 1949 adaptation of Murder at the Vicarage.

Christie had always felt that The Hollow would make a good play, but she came up against the opposition of her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, whom Christie affectionately described as having "had the valuable role in life of eternally trying to discourage me without success". Christie was determined to turn the book, which both she and Rosalind liked, into a play, but was equally adamant that in doing so it would lose the character of Hercule Poirot, whose appearance in the book she thought had "ruined it". The parts of the policemen were changed from the book as well from Inspector Grange and Sergeant Clark to Inspector Colquhoun and Detective Sergeant Penny.

Bertie Meyer, a backer of plays, whose association with Christie's stage works dated back to Alibi in 1928, signed a contract to produce The Hollow in 1950 and plans were made with Christie's agent, Edmund Cork, to open the play in London to coincide with the start of the Festival of Britain. These plans came to nothing and Christie was annoyed at the treatment she was starting to receive from Meyer on this and his slow response to staging another play she had written, Towards Zero. Meyer turned it down as he believed that it would be too difficult to cast, although it has been speculated that the anti-Semitism in the novel was the primary reason, him being Jewish. During the year, Peter Saunders, a young and new theatrical producer had sustained a significant loss when he staged an adaptation by Dan Sutherland of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1913 book, The Poison Belt. Desperate to make up these losses, he cast around for a play that he could take on tour which would not involve too much expense and which would be sure to attract a paying audience. Charles and Toy's adaptation of Christie's Murder at the Vicarage was just about to finish a four-month run at the Playhouse Theatre and, desperate to minimise his costs, he hit upon the idea that the name of the actors who starred in the production wouldn't really matter as Christie herself was enough of a public name to attract the audience. He therefore deliberately advertised the play as Agatha Christie's "Murder at the Vicarage" rather than "Murder at the Vicarage" by Agatha Christie. This small piece of showmanship worked. He recouped his losses and, more importantly, brought himself to the attention of Christie who, annoyed with the slow progress of Bertie Meyer, gave The Hollow to Saunders instead.

Saunders faced great difficulties in staging the play, including refusals to assist in casting or finance from colleagues in the theatrical world, who felt that the piece was badly written. One problem was the casting of the star part of Lady Angkatell and it was Saunders who hit upon the idea of Jeanne De Casalis, a choice that Christie did not accept at first but which she later admitted was right.

The play opened at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge on 10 February 1951, although Christie was absent as she was in Iraq accompanying her husband Max Mallowan on one of his archaeological expeditions. She arranged for flowers to be sent to the female members of the cast. Hundreds of miles away, she was as nervous as ever at the public reaction, although she was reassured by telegrams which told her that the opening night was a success. Even so, Saunders and director Hubert Gregg had to make some amendments to take out some of the unintentional comic moments that had occurred on the first night.

After an eight-week tour, the play opened at the Fortune Theatre in London on 7 June 1951 to an enthusiastic press response. It transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre on 8 October 1951 and ran for a total of eleven months and 376 performances, enabling Christie to see it on her return.

One special thrill for Saunders was a request by Queen Mary, a noted Christie fan, to see the play. She came to the Fortune Theatre to do so and met various members of the cast in the interval. Christie herself was so pleased at the efforts that Saunders made that she took him to lunch just after Christmas 1951 and gave him a brown paper package. Inside it was the script for a new play she had just written, The Mousetrap.

Synopsis

The action of the play passes in the garden room of Sir Henry Angkatell's house, The Hollow, about eighteen miles from London. Time: the present.

ACT I

A Friday afternoon in early September

The play begins with Henrietta Angkatell (Henry's younger cousin, in her 30s) working on a sculpture and Sir Henry Angkatell reading a newspaper. Lucy Angkatell, Henry's wife, soon enters and makes some characteristically disjointed statements about moles in the garden. Discussion reveals that a number of guests will be arriving to spend the weekend at The Hollow. The first guest to arrive is Midge Hardcastle, another cousin to the Angkatells. The group reflects on a portrait of Ainswick, an estate once inhabited by Lucy Angkatell. Midge and Henrietta remember Ainswick fondly as well, having spent a part of their childhood or adolescence there. Gudgeon, the butler, soon shows in the next guest, Edward Angkatell, yet another cousin and the current owner and resident of Ainswick. It is made clear that Midge is in love with Edward, but Edward is in love with Henrietta. The Angkatell clan briefly leaves the stage, and Gudgeon returns with a maid in training, the working-class Doris. A car is heard, and Gudgeon greets the final guests, John and Gerda Cristow, a successful but condescending doctor and his slow-witted wife. After establishing that John doesn't think much of Gerda's intelligence, he departs, and Henrietta enters and warmly greets Gerda. Henrietta gives Gerda a statuette for which she had previously posed. John, Sir Henry, and Midge return from the garden, and John expresses disdain for the statuette. To break the tension, Henry mentions that film star Veronica Craye is currently residing nearby, in a cottage called Dovecotes. John and Henrietta find themselves alone on stage, and after John reveals that he and Veronica Craye were once lovers, it becomes apparent that he and Henrietta are currently having an affair. Edward walks in on an intimate moment between the two, and John leaves. Edward tries to convince Henrietta to return with him to Ainswick, but is rebuffed. Henrietta leaves to get dressed for a formal dinner, and Sir Henry and Midge come onstage. Midge discusses her employment at a dress shop, rejecting her cousins' pleas to accept their financial support and aristocratic lifestyle. As the Angkatells and Cristows all return to the stage, Veronica Craye makes a surprise appearance. She complains that her cottage has lost power, and her lighter is not working, and so is in need of matches. While waiting for Gudgeon to return with the matches, Veronica notices John, and reveals their past to the group. She asks John, dazed by her appearance, to come over after dinner. He assents, and the act ends as Veronica departs and the rest of the cast goes to dinner.

Reception

The Times reviewed the play in its issue of 8 June 1951. The reviewer felt that a chorus who stated the suspect's motives in any stage whodunit would "spare the author trouble and the audience tedium" but went on to say that, "once the fatal shot has been fired and the police arrive to ask questions there can be nothing but admiration for the impudent skill with which she directs suspense first this way, then that, and yet contrives to let certainty arrive in due course with an effect of genuine surprise." The reviewer described the play as an "ingenious entertainment" although admitting that there was "no very high polish on the performance" of the actors.

Credits of London production

Director: Hubert Gregg

Cast:

Beryl Baxter as Henrietta Angkatell

George Thorpe as Sir Henry Angkatell, KCB

Jeanne De Casalis as Lady Angkatell

Jessica Spencer as Midge Harvey

A. J. Brown as Gudgeon

Colin Douglas as Edward Angkatell

Patricia Jones as Doris

Joan Newell as Gerda Cristow

Ernest Clark as John Cristow, MD, FRCP

Dianne Foster as Veronica Craye

Martin Wyldeck as Inspector Coquelhoun, CID

Shaw Taylor as Detective Sergeant Penny

Publication

The play was published by Samuel French Ltd. The publication date, according to the English Catalogue of Books is 14 May 1953 but the file copy in the British Library is dated 1 July 1952. (The copyright date that appears in the play is 1952).

It was first published in hardback in The Mousetrap and Other Plays by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1978 (ISBN 0-396-07631-9) and in the UK by HarperCollins in 1993 (ISBN 0-00-224344-X).