Many actors fine the plays of Agatha Chritie boring But they are very popular. There is a reason. American actors need to know about it, and British actors need to know about it better !
Nothing very serious happens in her plays, apart from one of her characters suddenly being murdered for no clear reason. The other scenes seem very unimportant, and the characters are rather dull! Even when a detective arrives and explains that one of them must be the murderer nobody gets very excited.
And the reason why her plays are so popular is that the take place in a fairy-tale world which Americans may like to think really exists in the UK. Everyone is polite. Good manners are kept up all of the time. No offensive language is used. And even when the murderer is discovered at the end of the play there is no violence seen.
It is quite true that the UK can seem to be a more peaceful place than the USA. The police do not usually carry guns. Criminals hardly ever use them. There is no death penalty. Public bars close before midnight so town-centers are more free of crime. The list of ‘comfortable’ things about the UK which fill up her plays would itself become boring – even with completely free healthcare near the top – what matters is how actors can quite easily manage to make her seemingly boring lines very interesting !
The plays usually take place in a quiet village, or on a small island, far from the bustle of big cities, so the characters may seem to live mostly quiet decent lives, with no serious financial worries or divorce ever in the air! But innocent lines can have unkind thoughts behind them!
The fact is that in every line – almost every word – there are secret meanings which good productions of her plays may find, which only need acors to think of alternative reasons for everything they say, every word. And the amazing result of this is that her plays can include dozens of moments of humor, and, amazingly make the audience start to care who the murderer is !
When a character talks about the murder, however briefly, they may seemt o be just giving information to the detective and trying to show they are not guilty. But when speaking about anyone’s death it is quite easy to show grief and quite serious love for the person who has passed away.
When a detective is listing a long page of events to sum up how the murder occurred, he may actually be trying to work out what happened and be worried that he does not fully understand it himself.
When one of the characters in the play proposes marriage to another and is refuse, the scene may only seem to like one seen in a hundred television ‘soaps’ and a hundred other plays, because the language used is usually very ‘obvious’, but if we can detect that dishonesty and even manipulation is involved then we will start to wonder if this is connected to the homicide.
This is impoartnt for actor to think about because it is work that they need to nclude n any play or screenplay they ever perform if they want to be interesting at all.
The apparently most boring parts of a butler or maid must be played as if they are gentle and completely ‘reliable’, and not to stand out as being like soldiers, but queitly not hardly meaning t be noticed. But whey suddenly move out of a scene slightly more quickly than usual, or just ‘seem’ to be queitly listening, the audience will pay attention to the scene much more.
They want to protect their perfect world, but inside every word there are problems which they are hiding incredibly well .
All good actors are able to make simple scenes interesting, and not all actors can manage the simple charm of George Clooney, ( or Sarah Rafferty the ‘perfect secretary in the TV series SUITS), but they should aim to have simply include some of the kindness which is aall an actor need to have some of the quality of ‘charm’. And all actors doing her plays will learn the importance of speaking clearly, so that it doesn’t sound as if the actor are practicing a voice exercise! The reason for the characters being slightly more clearly spoken in this than in some other plays is that they regard it as polite to do so!
And British accents will not keep an audience interested for every long, because what matters in any accent is what the lines really mean! Then, by playing a character as just very trustworthy and reliable, the audience will notice when even one single word is said more carefully. This is a chance to join that group of successful actors who are able to make simple scenes interesting.
It is not unusual for casts of her productions to remain friends after the run of the show ends. The truthfulness, and decency of most of her characters inevitably help actors to get on together well. Al that’s been needed is for the actors to ‘get’ the moments in the play when, for a moment, their mask slightly drops.
