Last year we saw The Agatha Christie Theatre Company's excellent production of Witness for the Prosecution, so we were eager to see their next show. Where Witness was a courtroom drama with a few twists thrown in, Verdict is a pretty straight-forward character drama. There's a murder, but we see it happen, so it's not a whodunnit, or even a whydunnit, the tension comes in the second act when another character is mistakenly put on trial (off stage) for the crime.
brilliant...
Not heavy on plot, Verdict's success is in the fully-rounded cast of 10, including a German academic, his wheelchair bound wife, her sister and a couple of Professor Hendryk's students. The script is witty and initially led me to believe that the play could be a whodunnit, neatly setting up motives for several characters, before romantic jealousy leads a young student to poison the professor's wife. From here the drama intensifies around the court case of the deceased's sister, who also happens to have an unconsummated but reciprocated love for her widowed brother-in-law. It's hard to describe how the characterisations make the play shine, but the actors really brought the whole piece alive, and did so on an impressive library set.
but...
Focussing on the characters means that there's not that much exciting drama, and as I went in expecting a mystery I was a little disappointed at how straight it all was. The very end was rather odd too, and a little flat.
briefly...
An absorbing character piece that's oddly twist-free.
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