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Actor in The Captive - 2010 Webby award winner for Best Drama in Online Film & Video

Winner of the 2005-2006 Spotlight-On Best Ensemble Award for Avalon, FHB Productions

The cast, led by standout actors Basile and Byrnes, is excellent. Among the more notable performances...Joe Sevier as the condemned man being made to confess on the scaffold by a priest. - Byrne Harrison's review of Sons of Molly Maguire for www.oobr.com nominated for Best Ensemble through the Midtown International Theatre Festival Awards (click here for the full review)

Joe Sevier’s Camilo remains the only constant and the only sanity in this brave new world. - Antonia Mandry's review of The Winter's Tale for The Shakespeare Revue (www.shakespeare-revue.com) (click here for the full review)

Joe Sevier, excellently playing the police detective, 'is' really enjoyable to watch. - Susan E. Lindt's review of The Unexpected Guest for The Intelligencer Journal (http://lancasteronline.com/lol_pages/paper/intell/) (close)

Fulton's Guest Grand
The Unexpected Guest
Written by Agatha Christie
Directed by Kate Saxon
Review by Susan E. Lindt, Staff Writer
Intelligencer Journal, Published: Jan 30, 2009

It's not a good time to drop in on the Warwicks.

Still, as dysfunctional families go, they offer more mystery than most to make for an intriguing visit.

Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery "The Unexpected Guest" opened Thursday at Fulton Opera House.

The show had a lukewarm start, but the nine-member cast heated to a nice crescendo for Christie's signature reveal, which had the audience buzzing.

British stage director Kate Saxon returns to Lancaster after directing the world premiere of "The French Lieutenant's Woman" at the Fulton in 2003.

What's most unexpected about this "Unexpected Guest" is its striking set.

Simply put, Christie's plays are classic, and most productions never venture past a classic British set: hunter-green walls over heavy wood panels with animal-head trophies above the mantle.

It's six years later, but I remember vividly Saxon's stylish sets for "French Lieutenant's Woman." She has put an interesting, moody twist on the "Guest" sets, too. Scenic designer Robert Klingelhoefer's old English manor house panels are there, but the treatment is decidedly icy, dreamy, foggy — all themes on which Christie relies heavily to confuse the audience and her characters in this whodunit. Add to that Beth Dunkelberger's period costumes (down to the seamed stockings) and Debra Dunlop's stark black-and-white furnishings, and Christie's ambiance (finally!) gets an eye-candy makeover.

That's not to say Christie's writing doesn't still stand, especially with this strong cast. But "Guest" is a 1958 play set in 1930s South Wales, so the pace is going to lag a bit behind, say, that of reality TV.

But Christie's ability to make a punch line out of a flat line ("Blackmail, sir? I don't know what you mean,") is most enjoyable, even if many of those one-liners sneaked past Thursday's audience. But I'm not here to criticize the audience.

The standout in this cast, playing the unexpected guest himself, is actor Jerry Richardson, who was the sole enjoyment in another Fulton world premiere, 2006's "Dracula: Lord of the Undead." And he is a corker in this one, too.

Returning from last year's "Doubt," in which he played the priest everyone doubted, is actor Michael Frederic. In "Guest," he shows his comic timing as Angell, the victim's nurse. Actors Bob Braswell (as the simple-minded, gun-wielding, um, IQ-challenged person) and Joe Sevier, excellently playing the police detective, also are really enjoyable to watch.

Just two years ago, the Fulton produced Christie's "Mousetrap," and while I found that plot slightly more interesting, I found myself bored with the look of the stage midway through the first act. With "The Unexpected Guest," I enjoyed seeing a classic with something unclassic about its appearance, especially because "classic" can sometimes mean "seen it before."

I'm not a huge Christie fan, and I have about as much dysfunctional family as I need. But "The Unexpected Guest" is a solid show with an unusually slick atmosphere for a classic. There's simply no reason not to drop by for a visit with this play.

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com