HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY presents MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE 2011

Here are a few pix from the performance. We enjoyed excellent food and entertainment!

Dial M for Murder

HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY

MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE

presents

Dial M for Murder

 

Friday, October 21

 and

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Dinner at 6:30 pm

Performance at 7:30 pm

Admission $25.00

Tickets on sale now

in the library’s Adult Services Department.

Cash….. Check…..MC/VISA

For further information

and/or tickets, call

205-332-6625

HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY 14TH ANNUAL MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE presents...

Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians
(And Then There Were None)

 

Friday, October 22 and Saturday, October 23 

Dinner at 6:30 pm 

Performance at 7:30 pm 

Admission $25.00 

Tickets go on sale Monday, September 27
in the library’s Adult Services Department 

Cash….. Check…..MC/VISA 

For further information and/or tickets
call 205-332-6625

Editorial Reviews

The third of many film and TV adaptations of the popular Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians is the title of the American edition, the hit play, and most of the movies), this 1965 version moves the action from a remote island to an isolated ski resort and otherwise rearranges the plot. The basic premise, however, remains the same. Ten strangers, eight of them guests and two of them servants, are lured to a dinner party and then trapped there to be killed one at a time by an unseen host who wishes to punish them for their disparate perceived crimes. The old nursery rhyme provides both the framing device, and, in the source material, the method of execution for each victim. In this version, however, the revised murder scenes include a hapless servant (Marianne Hoppe) falling to her death from a booby-trapped ski lift. Ten Little Indians features a varied cast that ranges from future Bond girls Shirley Eaton and Daliah Lavi to former teen idol Fabian and former Wyatt Earp TV star Hugh O'Brian. It also reunites My Fair Lady co-stars Stanley Holloway and Wilfrid Hyde-White. The film was the final directorial effort of George Pollock, who had previously helmed several adaptations of Christie's popular Miss Marple mysteries, starting with 1962's Murder, She Said. Christopher Lee makes an uncredited appearance as the recorded voice of absentee host/villain Mr. Owen. Despite its mountain setting, the picture was filmed in Ireland. Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide ~Barnes & Noble website

Get the Ten Little Indians book in our catalog.

MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE PRESENTS Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap

More information and how to purchase tickets for the play!

The Mousetrap was initially performed as a radio play in 1952 and was broadcast by the BBC with the title Three Blind Mice. The radio play had been commissioned in 1947 by Queen Mary, who was a Christie fan. The forty-five minute play was based on a short story on which Christie had been working; however, audience reaction was so positive that Christie went back to work on the script, elaborating on it, and with its first performance on October 6, 1952, The Mousetrap became a stage play. After a seven-week tour, the play opened in London at The Ambassadors Theatre on November 25, 1952. The play later transferred to St. Martin's Theatre in London on March 23, 1974 and has been running there ever since. The Mousetrap has broken several records for its continuous theatrical run since its opening, and it is estimated that more than four million people had seen the play by the time its twenty-five year anniversary was celebrated in 1977. After another twenty years of performances it is safe to speculate that an additional three to four million people have probably sat in the dark and tried to puzzle out the identity of the murderer. Performances of The Mousetrap continue to benefit from tourists who seek out the play both for its artistic merits and for the joy of being part of a theatrical tradition. Christie signed over the royalties from the play to her grandson at its opening in 1952. It is thought that he has become a multimillionaire from the royalties of this one property alone.

Here's just a little taste of the play from enotes.com that will make you want more...  

Act One, scene i

The play opens with a radio account of a woman murdered in London. Mollie and Giles have just opened a small guest house and inn with property that Mollie has inherited from her aunt. The action begins on their first day of business and with their first guests. Christopher Wren is the first guest to arrive. He is enthusiastic about the house and praises both the style and decor. Mrs. Boyle is the second guest to arrive, and she arrives complaining that a taxi did not meet her at the train (although she never provided an arrival time). The third guest to arrive, Major Metcalf, is carrying her luggage when he enters the hall a few moments later. Mrs. Boyle's complaints about everything, including the lack of servants and experienced hosts, result in Giles offering to cancel her stay, but she declines and insists she will stay. ~www.enotes.com/mousetrap