Miss Marbles (Prudence Wright Holmes) is looking for noted mystery writer Agatha Christie in this fun frolic.
Mixing the vernacular of Christie’s own novels with the sleuthing stereotypes of Cluedo/Clue, this fifty-minute show is an enjoyable piece of digital theatre, with Marbles proving a rather spiky version of the busybody of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple.
The audience, both present in the venue when this was filmed and us at home, are key witnesses to the disappearance of Christie. Audiences watching the show in person become characters in the investigation, while items are discovered to move things along.
This is a bizarre show with good intentions but falls a little short: utilising paying punters to improvise is often hit and miss, depending on whether Holmes is speaking to a fan or aficionado, or not.
Agatha is Missing is a diversion that Holmes has to carry (and does well) and is a show that requires little work on the part of the audience to have a good time.
If you are seeking an hour of armchair entertainment, this is perhaps a good choice, especially when you reach the point where ideas on what happened to Christie become ever more strange.
With the usual investigative tropes of “no one should leave the room,” threatening notes, and daft hyphenated names, Agatha is Missing is a treat for bookish detectives. With a double entendre or two, it nudges at naughty while remaining accessible to all.
The sense of action in the filming makes a change from the static camerawork we sometimes see in fringe shows, and the visual and sound quality is very good throughout.
Miss Marbles could reappear in further cold cases, perhaps ones with an actual murder or sense of horror. A well-to-do writer taking off for a trip doesn’t quite hit the spot of actual crime.
Agatha is Missing can be watched on-demand throughout the Edinburgh Fringe: tickets here.
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