GEOFFREY SHRYHANE: Wigan Little Theatre Agatha Christie review

Wigan Little Theatre's production of Towards Zero

The writer with poison in her pen is a magnificent literary institution. And as the years go by, her stories endure.

So off we go to Wigan Little Theatre, who have chosen Christie’s Towards Zero for their second enthralling play of the new season.

The pandemic saw the theatre “dark” for two years. So little wonder whole team have been welcomed back with warm enthusiasm.

Towards Zero is a perfect choice for the cold, dark nights of March.

When a house party gathers at Gull’s Point, the seaside home of Lady Tressilian, Neville Strange finds himself caught between his first wife Audrey, and his new wife Kay..

The usual satisfying Christie plot leads up a warren of back streets and then fools us up to the very last “reveal all” scene.

As two jewellers quit Wigan, here's a trip back to decades past to see other sho...

Bill Collins – known as the theatre’s top panto dame – takes the director’s chair with consummate ease, and is rewarded with a thoroughbred cast of 11 – a true and entertaining mix, at the centre of which has love and hate rearing their ever ugly heads.

As a great Christie fan – long ago I ploughed my way through 22 Agatha blockbusters. But Towards Zero escaped me. In retrospect I realise that was a shame because it turns out to be superb.

In this excellent stage version, the pace is allowed to build and when all is revealed, I reckon most members of the audience had been well and truly fooled.

Towards Zero runs at WLT until March 19.

Thanks for reading. If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here and viewing our offers.