Prudence Wright Holmes brings an old-school charm and crispness to her one-woman comedy show Agatha is Missing. For such an audience-interactive piece, it is a shame that it has been confined to the online medium for this Fringe season. The purposefully camp and hammed-up tone clearly benefit from witnessing Holmes live and being swept up in her antics via adrenaline. Some moments may feel bizarre to viewers watching from the detached medium of a screen. Nevertheless, it is a sweet and retro production that certainly makes for thought-provoking viewing.
The premise takes inspiration from Agatha Christie’s real-life 1926 disappearance: shortly after her mum’s death, and after discovering that her husband had a mistress and intended to leave her, the world-renowned author kissed her daughter goodbye, set off in the car, and was missing for eleven days. This show takes us back to that time, whereupon we are greeted by Lady Clarissa Marbles (zero marks for subtlety; top marks for camp). Marbles (played by Prudence Wright Holmes) is an aristocratic, no-nonsense sleuth determined to find the culprit.
(In real life, there was no ‘culprit’, and Christie, thankfully, emerged safe and sound, if slightly dazed. It is generally thought that she had an unidentified mental breakdown. Audience members who know this may feel intrigued as to where the show is going – and intrigued they will continue to be as the plot progresses.)
Marbles proceeds to interview the ‘suspects’, based on a mixture of real and fictional people from Christie’s life. For ‘suspects’, read audience members chosen randomly, allocated a name, and brought to the stage to be ‘interviewed’. Christie’s 7-year-old daughter is cast as a 47-year-old woman, and “Colonel Christie” – Agatha’s husband – is a ponytailed, shirt-and-jeans guy who looked no older than me. (Marbles rather charmingly thanks him for “dressing up”, in a moment of comic and tasteful improvisation.)
More unexpected improvisation, perhaps, comes when Marbles calls on the audience to sing “God Save the King”. One may wonder how this is related to locating Agatha Christie. It comes out of nowhere. One may doubly wonder why Marbles then calls upon three audience members to sing it onstage and a fourth to wave a Union Flag beside them and put their hand on their chest patriotically. Hilariously, the biggest laugh from the audience comes from one appointed singer whispering, “help me!” while Marbles is offstage.
However, I appreciated the classy and very British theatricality that Prudence Wright Holmes brought to her Fringe show. This comedy skit is a healthy slice of a different kind of Britain and a different performance style. It provides a refreshing alternative to the festival’s usual focus on the new and contemporary. I also applaud her for writing a whole Fringe show based on Agatha Christie (we need more of them!). The solution to the mystery is beautifully fictional and bears no resemblance to why Christie actually disappeared. (Interestingly, the tabloids did suggest Holmes’s version of events as a conspiracy theory in 1926, but it is rejected as false these days.)
Regardless, the artistic licence is well-handled. Here is to Prudence Wright Holmes, hopefully returning to the Fringe live one day!
‘Agatha is Missing’ is available on demand throughout The Fringe. Online access can be purchased here.
Image via Freddy Lowe