About the Play:

The Hollow is a full-length mystery by Agatha Christie, the best-selling author of all time. The lady of the house, Lucy Angkatell, has invited her family and friends to her home, The Hollow, for a weekend in the countryside. Events soon turn from sunny reminiscing to stormy turmoil as something else unexpectedly arrives at The Hollow – murder!

The Hollow is a glorious who-dun-it with a twist. An unhappy game of romantic follow the leader explodes into murder one weekend at The Hollow, home of Sir Henry and Lucy Angkatell. Dr. Jon Cristow is at the centre of the trouble: Henrietta, his mistress; Veronica, his ex mistress; and Gerda, his wife are all at The Hollow. Also visiting are Edward (who is in love with Henrietta) and Midge (who loves with Edward). Veronica ardently desires to marry Cristow and succeeds in reopening their affair but is unable to get him to divorce his wife. Veronica unwisely states that if she cannot have him, no one shall. Within five minutes Cristow is dead, and his wife is found holding the gun. More than one woman had a motive and most had the opportunity for murder, but who pulled the trigger? Enter Inspector Colquhoun and Sergeant Penny to solve the crime. The plot will keep your audience guessing until the very end, and the love triangles, suspicion, and intrigue will keep them on the edge of their seat.

Agatha Christie first crafted the tale as the novel Murder After Hours, adapting it for the theatre five years later. She felt that this was her best play and it differs from the book substantially. It was re-titled The Hollow (named after the estate where the action takes place) and opened in 1951 at the Fortune Theatre in London to an enthusiastic press response. It transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre that same year and ran for a total of eleven months. The play has become a popular choice for school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 6 female, 6 male

What people say:

"Agatha Christie has staged, against her smartest, most hyperemotional background so far, the shooting of a philandering doctor." — The Observer

"The Hollow is a 'who's going to get it' that quickly turns into a 'whodunnit.' A genuine crowd pleaser and a worthwhile evening of entertainment." — The New York Times

"To the end her listeners stay rapt... The main interest of the play, as a piece of writing, is in the mystery; but Mrs. Christie writes quick, speakable dialogue and, gleefully, her cast keeps us guessing until the dying minutes of the third act." — The Times

About the Playwright:

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and, in many languages, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. In a writing career that spanned more than half a century, Agatha Christie wrote 66 crime novels, 150 short story collections, over 20 plays, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott. Her work includes Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and the genre-defining And Then There Were None. In addition several of her original works were adapted for the stage by third parties.