Photo Flash: Agatha Christie's THE UNEXPECTED GUEST Celebrates 60 Years

A beautiful woman, a dead body and a smoking gun! Agatha Christie's classic play The Unexpected Guest, celebrates its 60th birthday this year having opened in the West End at the Duchess Theatre on August 12, 1958. Be Bold Productions has mounted a faithful production of her plot-twisting work Off-Broadway at the Player Theatre.

This mystery masterpiece centers a stranger, Michael Starkwedder (Dan Moldovan), who runs his car off the road on a foggy night. Seeking help, he enters an open door and finds the dead body of Richard Warkwick with his wife (Anna Gion) in the shadows holding a gun. Starkwedder, a bit of a wannabe detective, decides to help her get away with murder. But nothing is really as it seems and the deeper he delves into the truth, less he really seem to know.

Directed by Mikaela Kafka, the play features a cast of crafty characters including; Jack Flately as the unbalanced half-brother Jan, Sue-Ellen Mandell as Richards regal and respectable mother, John Dillon as the local politician and very familiar neighbor, Eric Fletcher and Richard Lisenby as the detective team sorting through the sordid affair and Joseph Raik and Brenda Bell as the all-knowing house staff who have their own agendas. With such a line-up of suspicious eccentrics the audience is guessing to the very end as to who they would convict.

The Noir-style production is set in an inviting old-English study by Elizabeth Chaney, splashed with vivid and foreboding lighting by Ali Hall and perfectly enhanced with reminiscent music selections and sound design by Emma Ruopp. The actors are wrapped in the luxury of the period-perfect costumes by Courtney Hansen.

The Unexpected Guest opened April 13 and runs through April 22nd at The Players Theatre located at 115 MacDougal Street (between Bleecker and West 3rd). Tickets can be purchased at: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/989346 or by calling 212-352-3101 or at the box office which opens daily at 11a. Student rush tickets are available for $20. Visit www.BeBoldNY.com.

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