Review: The Verdict at the Belgrade Theatre

[dutchman]

The Verdict, Belgrade Theatre Running time 2hrs 20mins.

THE jury’s out on The Verdict.

It’s certainly not one of crime queen Agatha Christie’s strongest whodunnits and the flimsy plot does not bear too much scrutiny as the production creaks along on the stage.

Robert Duncan manages to deliver the goods as an idealistic foreign professor who finds himself attracting the unwanted attentions of a young Deb eager to get her painted nails into him.

Of course, his sick wife is a minor inconvenience to the romantic fantasy, but it’s not an impossible situation.

Unfortunately interest in the tepid love triangle quickly fades and most of the characters lack any, well, real character. Only Elizabeth Power as the nosy cleaner offers some welcome comic relief as she stocks up on tea and gossip and goes running to the police when she suspects the worst. But the thriller lacks any sense of suspense and it really needs one of Agatha Christie’s super-sleuths like Poirot or Miss Marple to save the day.

Instead The Verdict gets away with murder and the audience are the hapless victims.

Rating * *

Review by Marion McMullen