By Mark Shenton
22 Nov 2009
A Daughter's A Daughter, written by Agatha Christie under the alias of Mary Westmacott, is to receive its West End premiere, with performances beginning Dec. 14 at Trafalgar Studios 1. It will open Dec. 15 for a four-week run through Jan. 9, 2010.
This marks the first full-scale production of the play since its original run in Bath in 1954. The play was written under the alias of Mary Westmacott, a name that Agatha Christie also used for a series of six romantic novels published between 1930 and 1956. According to press materials, it is quite different from any of her other work for the stage and is a more "personal" play than anything else she wrote. The play is described as a tense and sometimes taut glimpse at obsession within a dysfunctional and self-serving family. Returning home from the Second World War, Sarah (Weeks), convinces her mother Ann (Seagrove) to "live life to the hilt," and ditch her fiancé Richard. Meanwhile, Sarah has become involved with cad Lawrence and feels the need to marry him in order to please her mother. Resentment and jealousy rage as gradually the relationship between mother and daughter is corroded, while each seeks solace and happiness in futile pursuits.
Seagrove was last seen in the West End in Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular at the Garrick Theatre in 2008-08. Other West End appearances include starring roles in The Letter, The Night of the Iguana, The Secret Rapture, The Constant Wife, Brief Encounter, Hurly Burly, The Female Odd Couple and Present Laughter. Her television credits include "Judge John Deed," "Lewis," "Hold the Dream," "A Woman of Substance," "Diana," "The Woman in White" and "The Brack Report." Her films include "Zoe," "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," "The Guardian," "A Chorus of Disapproval," "Appointment With Death," "Local Hero," "Miss Beatty's Children" and "A Shocking Accident" (Oscar for Best Short).
Weeks is best known as the star of TV's "Foyle's War." She has been a professional actor since she was 12, when she played the lead in the television series "Goggle Eyes." She played a young Helena Bonham-Carter in "A Dark Adapted Eye," followed by other television films, including "The Strawberry Tree," "The Orchard Walls," and Catherine Cookson's "The Rag Nymph." In-between filming "Foyle's War," which she has been starring in as Samantha Stewart since 2002, she went back to the professional stage (after an absence of ten years) to play Viola in Twelfth Night and toured with a production of The Turn of the Screw. A Daughter's A Daughter marks her West End stage debut.
Childs was last seen on the London stage as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Trafalgar Studios 2 in April 2009. She has appeared in the TV series "Born and Bred" and "Howard's Way."
Dutton was last seen as Binkie Beaumont in Plague Over England at the Duchess Theatre. Other stage credits include Much Ado About Nothing and The Merchant of Venice for the RSC and Not About Heroes and The Duchess of Malfi for the National.
Marsden, who is best known as an actor whose TV career includes "The Palace," "The Green Green Grass" and playing Inspector Adam Dalgliesh in the long-running PD James series, is making his West End directorial debut with this production. He has, however, directed regionally, particularly at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff, where he has also been artistic director.
To book tickets, contact the box office on 0844 871 7627, or visit www.ambassadortickets.com
