Wisconsin playwright Heidi Armbruster leans into her strength and writes in a seemingly serious drama format but then wraps it all up in a hilarious comedy. This time Armbruster dabbles in a parallel universe around an unexplained disappearance by Agatha Christie in 1926 and a super-fan tries to solve the case from clues ‘discovered’ at a 2026 Christie festival on Christie’s estate.
We first meet Agatha Christie in her home totally upset because she believes her dog has died. Alex Keiper’s Agatha is distraught, distracted, and clearly mentally elsewhere. And in many ways this sets the tone for her character deeper into the play. Armbruster’s and Keiper’s Agatha Christie isn’t the smart focused British writer that we would have anticipated. The very next instant it appears the dog is still with us but Agatha is also confronted with the open infidelity of her husband, Archibald Christie. And Matt Bowdren’s Archie is precisely the imperious and stuffy aristocrat that you might expect. Agatha clearly still loves him and he clearly wants to go and they are at an impasse. She won’t give him a divorce so he wants to prevent her from writing. Archie does everything in his power to hurt Agatha including parading his paramour around in their home.
And then it is 2026 and there is an Agatha Christie festival going on on the grounds of the Christie estate. On the grounds is an important factor because we find ourselves in the same library work place as in the earlier 1926 scene. The home is now a museum and the library is off limits during the festival yet people keep wandering in. First is Lucy, a fan of Christie, who is attending the festival, and I guess is something of an ‘ugly American’? Zoe Sophia Garcia presents Lucy at seemingly loose ends and a little free with her hands. Touching everything, a few ‘relics’ make their way to her purse before she is confronted by the caretaker. She talks her way into staying a few more minutes when she encounters William, a Christie scholar and assistant to a Christie scholar. Blake Hamilton Currie is a smooth sexy lothario as William. And he has a few photocopied pages of a ‘lost’ Christie notebook that he uses as bait to seduce incredulous Christie fan girls. Garcia’s Lucy plays along but might be the better player and somehow manages to take possession of the lost papers. And then Dale Hodges as Jane wanders in. An elderly lady seeming just a bit confused, she sits down and starts knitting. But, she too is more than she seems and ends up partnering with Lucy to solve the mystery suggested in the purloined pages. Tally HO!
To avoid spoiling too much fun, I will simply say that we follow Christie to a seaside resort where she seems to exist in a drug induced haze…and Monsieur Hercule Poirot makes an appearance. Their conversations poke a lot of fun at detective story traditions and William Sturdivant nails the Poirot stereotype right on the head. And our intrepid Jane and Lucy turn their search for a solution into a scavenger hunt of sorts.
But never fear, there is a traditional resolution. As a book end to a dinner gathering in Act I, all of the characters are again gathered together in the dining room of the Christie home. And everything is pretty formal and cold until Archie’s arm candy, Nancy, played by Amira Danan, falls to the floor after drinking her glass of wine. Everyone in the room has a motive and Poirot steps to the forefront. Every detective story ox is gored, all is revealed, and a solution to the case is found. This scene generated the greatest amount of laughter of the evening…as it should! It is smartly overwritten, overwrought, and overacted with hilarious results.
And laughter: kudos for Director Joanie Schultz for pulling out all of the wonderful humor built into this play. I didn’t expect to have quite this much fun with Mrs. Christie.
Character that you will hate: Charlotte, Mrs. Christie’s secretary. She is played by Betsy Hogg and shows up later as the 2026 as the gate keeper in the library, and at the beach resort. Hogg performs as exactly the same character in all three instances.
Character that you will love: Dale Hodges, Jane. She is maybe the smartest cookie in the box and draws in our empathy as we watch her move through the real world. Generally she likes to travel alone but is willing to humor Lucy!
At one point, Lucy declares that they are just going around in circles. And at that point she and Jane literally are as the Rep has again pulled out a rotating stage. Initially used to change room locales, during their travels, our intrepid searchers are walking around the edge of the stage as it rotates. Marvelous scenic work by Se Hyun Oh.
Now, fair warning. This play requires all of your concentration. There are moments of sleight of hand that need to be seen that are important to the story. And with the English accents and Poirot’s Belgian French, you want to pay attention so you don’t miss a good joke!
Mrs. Christie runs about two hours and 15 minutes including an intermission. It is being presented on the main stage of the Checota Powerhouse Theater. It runs from now through May 10, 2026. Additional information and tickets can be found HERE
Extra credit reading: The Playbill
All photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.