Virginia Bancur is so excited about the audience’s reaction to the play she’s directing she doesn’t want the actors to speak about it outside of rehearsal.
The Milton Players Theatre Group (MPTG) will present Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest at the Milton Centre for the Arts’ MinMaxx Hall for shows October 31 and November 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8.
Bancur, who regularly directs shows at Georgetown Little Theatre, said she’s thrilled to work with MPTG on The Unexpected Guest, and knew right away it would be the perfect play for her to direct.
“This is one show that interested me, and I thought ‘well I’ll do something a little different,’” she said. “I’m so glad I picked it.
“I usually pick shows that I know I really like and that I feel I can do a good job on.”
She noted that the cast, mostly Milton residents, has bonded well.
“They’re really working well together and I’m so proud of them,” she said, but added that she’s trying to keep them hush-hush about the play’s surprise ending. “It’s a really good audience show and they’ll be quite surprised by the ending.
“They definitely won’t see it coming.”
MPTG describes the play as being about a man, Michael Starkwedder, who enters the Warwick home through a window and discovers the dead body of Richard Warwick. He finds the wife, Laura, holding a gun that may have killed him. Evidence points toward her being the killer, but she tells him she’s innocent. As the play unfolds, it introduces many suspects and the plot thickens toward the suspenseful conclusion.
Written in 1958, it originally opened at the Duchess Theatre in London.
“The actors even said, ‘wow, that’s different,’” said Bancur, who’s been a member of MTPG for more than 12 years.
She encourages the community to take advantage of this chance to see it.
“It’s got everything from tragedy to revenge, to love to hate, blackmail, trust, misunderstanding…it’s full of all this intrigue,” she said.
Bancur said there are various twists and turns in The Unexpected Guest that make it different than other Agatha Christie mysteries. “The play isn’t produced all that often.”
The cast members are: Michael Chew (Inspector Thomas), Cathy Imus (Mrs. Warwick), Lesley Queen (Benny), Howard Lorimer (Sgt. Cadwallader), Kris Brown (Mr. Starkwedder), Ryk Simpson (Julian Farrar), Liam Charbonneau (Jan Warwick), Mike Mitton (Henry Angell) and Jessica Ryan (Laura Warwick).
Tickets cost $28.40 and available at the box office, online at www.miltoncentreforthearts.com or by calling (905) 878-6000.
