Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Helen Bradbury, Sam Frenchum, Alice Haig, Justin Avoth, Molly Logan, Crispin Redman, Nicola Sanderson, Gareth Willams.

Despite being one of the few works by Agatha Christie which has not had the major investment by television and film and has which received perhaps less attention than most when it comes to being adapted by theatre, Love From A Stranger is a compelling piece in which the idea of the hidden psychopath is explored and manipulated to the point of the absolute style becoming of the Queen of British Crime fiction.

It is in the very question of how to spot the psychopathic behaviour in which the audience is drawn into the play, the one perhaps whose mask slips too easily, the assuredness of their performance disjointed and when finally confronted by a skilled professional, by the unseen chameleon in the human guise, they finally wear themselves down and surrender.

It is the charm of the piece that carries performances by Helen Bradbury as Cecily Harrington, Alice Haig’s delightful interpretation of her friend Mavis Wilson and the spider in the nest Bruce Lovell given a stylistic presentation by Sam Frenchum. It is though in the dynamic between Ms. Bradbury and Mr. Frenchum, and with the keen eye of Director Lucy Bailey firmly fixed on every aspect of the surrounding player’s movement in the final reveal, in which captivates the mind of the keen armchair detective.

The mood is one of rationality, the scariest and frightening to see exposed of all known psychopathic behaviours, the severity of the enjoyment they take in the act of murder and one to which they can never be blamed for, for they use subtler means of bringing down the axe, they employ the psychological reasoning in which the means of death is carried out. It is a mood that comes across with great adaption, from the two main leads of the production, through to the design of the two sets which move with each passing of psychopathic intent and into the realm of just how you define murder, especially when there is no way to prove otherwise.

A sparking production, one that drew the unexpected and sharp intakes of deep breaths from the audience, a play that sits well within Ms. Christie’s volume of work and one that endeavoured to drop the bombshell at exactly the right moment. Love From A Stranger is an underrated and perhaps neglected story which requires serious viewing.

Ian D. Hall