Theatre / Love From A Stranger, by Agatha Christie, directed by Jon Elphick. At Belconnen Theatre, until November 2. Reviewed by LEN POWER.

Opening in London in 1936, Love From A Stranger is based on Agatha Christie’s short story Philomel Cottage, which was first published in 1934. It’s the story of a woman who breaks off her engagement and impulsively marries a stranger, only to suspect him of dark deeds in his past.

This play is more of a will-he-do-it? than a whodunnit, but anyone thinking this is a more straight-forward mystery than usual, will be caught napping as Christie stealthily controls the minds of her unsuspecting audience yet again.

Elphick has assembled a fine cast of eight to tell this story. It’s notable for the depth of character work that he and the cast have achieved to bring these 1930s people convincingly to life.

Lilliana Cazabon-Mitchell brings a believable innocence to the role of Cecily Harrington, a typical middle-class young woman of the period. Eloise Willis, as her friend, Mavis Wilson, quickly establishes herself as the more worldly of the two women. George Belibassakis gains audience sympathy with his nicely controlled performance as the jilted fiancé, Nigel Lawrence.

Bradley Jones as the man of mystery, Bruce Lovell, is convincingly charming when he first meets Cecily and carefully adds layers of darkness to his character as the play progresses. Some of the later psychological aspects of his character show that this is a play of its time, but Jones plays the threatening behaviour at a believable level.

Debra Byrne excels with her humorous character study of the interfering and bigoted middle-aged Auntie Loo Loo and there is especially strong support by Chris McGrane as a very funny gardener, Hodgson. Jessica Slusser as the maid, Ethel, and Kim Wilson as Dr. Gribble also give finely etched characterisations.

The women’s costumes and hats are attractive and nicely in period and the design of the two settings is artfully handled to give the impression of two completely different locations.

Renowned worldwide for her record number of murder mystery novels, Agatha Christie also wrote quite a number of plays. Director Jon Elphick, of Tempo Theatre, has now directed 12 of them, which must be some kind of record, too.