Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d at The Mill at Sonning – review

For those who have preconceptions about Agatha Christie as perhaps being especially niche (as I must confess I did) I advise you to leave them at the door of the splendid conversion to a theatre with restaurant that is the Mill at Sonning.

Christie is surely the godmother of the murder mystery page turner, and her novels have been made into both films and stage plays. And certainly the grand country-house setting of Gossington Hall near a picturesque country village called St Mary Mead (a grand design by Michael Holt, splendidly lit by Jamie Platt), was just what I was expecting from Rachel Wagstaff’s excellent adaptation.

But I have to admit I was unprepared for the depth and pathos of the narrative behind The Mirror Crack’d. It does actually reference a real-life event about a famous American film star of the 1940s who gave birth to a disabled child after exposure to Rubella in pregnancy, thanks to a local fan who was infectious asking for her autograph.

Before readers get the idea that this is actually sounding more like a real tragedy, let me share that from the getgo, there is liveliness and high octane energy at work on designer Michael Holt’s wonderfully wide country-house living room set. Even though Liza Goddard’s excellent and eloquent Miss Jane Marple first appears armchair bound, with her leg resting on a richly brocaded cushion on a settle and her ankle bandaged after a fall, she has a warm and lively relationship with Cherry Baker, the obliging and bouncy young local lass from a local housing development who has come to to help her. Elysia Showan, about to graduate from the BA Acting Course at Bristol Old Vic, makes an impressive start as Cherry.

We learn that Dolly Bantry (excellent Annie Wensack), who used to own the Hall, has lost her husband and so has had to sell her home to a  showbiz couple: movie star Marina Gregg (Sara Crowe) and producer husband Jason Rudd (Jordon Taffe-Watson). Conveniently, they are filming a period drama  – apparently set in Tudor times – near their new home.

It’s our showbiz couple throwing a bit of a party for the newcomers that gives the murderer the opportunity for the “promise” of the play’s title to be fulfilled. A high-class looking cocktail is the “poisoned chalice”…

There are strong supporting turns: James Mack as the convincingly thwarted Chief Inspector Craddock, Martin Razpopov as a formidable Italian butler and Saskia Strallen as Lola Brewster. The cast is completed by Lydia Kirton as Ella Zielinsky and Paul Kemble as Cyril Leigh, both excellent.

I would definitely recommend that you begin your evening in the restaurant – it too gets star billing!