Make an appointment with the Gallery Players!
The latest production from Park Slope’s own theater company is a twisty mystery tale full of compelling characters who must grapple with questions of love, freedom — and murder. “Appointment with Death,” which runs through Dec. 16, was adapted for the stage — and given a different ending — by the legendary author Agatha Christie, based on her novel of the same name.
The story is set in Jerusalem in 1938, where Mrs. Boynton (Noelle McGrath, fantastic as a sadistic old battle-ax) has dragged her brood of adult stepchildren — nearly brainwashed Raymond (Ryan Wright); paranoid Ginevra (Rosa Procaccino, wonderful as a woman convinced the others are out to poison her); and listless Lennox (David Jacobs) and his wife, Nadine (Rhiannon McClintock) — to take in the sights of the holy city.
There is plenty of drama in the family, as elderly Mrs. Boynton barks orders at her cowed family, but initially, Nadine is the only member of the pack with enough perspective to realize that the old woman controls their lives.
But once this gang meets a disjointed cast of characters staying at the same hotel — including a cerebral pair of doctors, a self-possessed British dame, and a feisty Irish lad, among others — all of their lives quickly become intertwined. Raymond falls for British doctor Sarah King (a remarkable Kat Murphy), whom his mother hates — and after a series of revelations, both brothers become convinced that the old woman must die.
But when Mrs. Boynton mysteriously drops dead, suspicions abound — because everyone seems to have a motive!
You’ll have to see the play to find out whodunnit. Only one person did the deed — but nearly all of the characters will, at one point or another, have you on the edge of your seat during this exceptional show.
“Appointment with Death” at Gallery Players (199 14th St. between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park Slope, (718) 595–0547, www.galle
