Photo Flash: The Alley Tackles Its 23rd Agatha Christie Play with SPIDER'S WEB
By: Katricia Lang Jul. 15, 2016
This week, as is tradition, the Alley Theatre debuted SPIDER'S WEB, Agatha Christie's comedic mystery thriller. In her pastoral home on the English countryside, housewife Clarissa Hailsham-Brown tells outrageous tales both for her amusement and to the delight of her social circle. But when a murder takes place in her drawing room, the housewife who once courted excitement misses her old, boring life. Take a look at the devilishly devious stars below!
SPIDER'S WEB is the Alley's 23rd Christie production. Past productions ripped from the renowned crime fiction writer's pages are THE HOLLOW, DEATH ON THE NILE, WITNESS FOR PROSECUTION, THE MOUSETRAP, TOWARDS ZERO, and BLACK COFFEE.
And many members of the SPIDER'S WEB creative team are well acquainted with Christie's works. Scenic designer Linda Buchanan and lighting designer Michael Lincoln both worked on THE HOLLOW and BLACK COFFEE, and sound designer Joe Pino worked on Christie crime drama AFTER THE FALL. This is a first for costume designer Tricia Barsamian who, nevertheless, has shown her ability to cultivate darkly comic atmospheres with hints of whimsy in past Alley productions such as DRACULA.
The English born Christie is a world-famous murder mystery writer. Though born in 1890 and deceased in 1976, her legacy endures. In 1920 she published her first detective novel, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, where she presented Hercule Poirot, a character nearly as famous as its author. Over the next 56 years, Christie wrote 66 novels and more than a dozen plays, including MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE and the MISS MARPLE mysteries.
Agatha Christie's SPIDER'S WEB stars Jeffrey Bean as Sir Rowland Delahaye, John Tyson as Hugo Birch, Jay Sullivan as Jeremy Warrender, Josie de Guzman as Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, Todd Waite as Elgin and Paul Hope as Henry Hailsham-Brown. Alley Artistic Director Gregory Boyd directs.
SPIDER'S WEB continues through August 14. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays at the Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, please call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $26- $69.
Run time is 2 hours and 40 minutes with two intermissions. Recommended for general audiences.
Josie de Guzman as Clarissa Hailsham-Brown in Agatha Christie's Spider's Web. Photo by Lynn Lane.
Jeffrey Bean as Sir Rowland Delahaye, Josie de Guzman as Clarissa Hailsham-Brown and John Tyson as Hugo Birch in Agatha Christie's Spider's Web. Photo by Lynn Lane.
Jeffrey Bean as Sir Roland Delahaye in Agatha Christie's Spider's Web. Photo by Lynn Lane.
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