I was extremely lucky to have front-row seats to the last performance of Agatha Christie’s ‘Love From A Stranger’ starring Iain Glen and his beautiful wife Charlotte.
First of all, the weather was absolutely rotten and so it’s a wonder that the auditorium was as full as it was. It was literally torrential rain between 6pm and 7pm and so I don’t think anyone could be blamed for deciding, ‘Yeah, maybe I’ll give it a miss…’
Much to my shock when the curtain rose, I realised that I was only approximately 4 feet away from the cast of the show, so close in fact that I could see the colour of the spots on Iain’s socks (grey and purple, if you were wondering). So close that I could see the veins on his hands.
So close, in fact, that I could appreciate the VERY fine tailoring of his suit that hugged him in all the right places. It has to be said that for a man nearing sixty years of age, he shouldn’t be as fit as he is. I mean seriously, someone half his age would kill for a figure like his.
Due to social distancing and the COVID pandemic, the show was delivered in the style of an old BBC radio play, which meant that the cast were reading from scripts and into microphones (Iain’s mic was set the highest because, well…tol, and all that!)
All of the cast were sat at tables when they were not reading their lines and I have to say that the smiles and looks Iain kept giving Charlotte at their table were super sweet - as was the body contact, more on that later…
Credit should be given to the Foley Artist (who also played the doctor in the play) as his sound effects were great and really added that ‘radio play’ feel to the whole thing.
Performance wise, all the cast were excellent, but I have to be honest and say that my attention was on Iain and Charlotte the whole time. I’ve never seen Charlotte in anything before and I have to say that she matched her husband in every way during the show. She’s a rare talent and one that should be seen and acknowledged far more widely than she is.
Iain played the role of Bruce Lovell who is a British/American man who first meets Charlotte’s character (Cecily Harrington) when she puts an advert out for someone to rent her flat now that she has come into a considerable amount of money.
Cecily is due marry a man called Nigel Lawrence but breaks it off the same day that she meets Bruce. She is seduced by Bruce’s impulsiveness and his fanciful tales of his time Japan, Canada and America. They marry quickly and move into the countryside in a small cottage far from the rest of the village they’ve moved to and it is only when Cecily is cut off from the people who know her that Bruce starts to unravel.
At first it is played off as some ‘malady’ and that Bruce’s excitable and sometime erratic nature is born of his ‘adventurer’s spirit’ and his time abroad, but it is not long before he starts to unravel and Cecily begins to uncover the secrets that Bruce has been hiding. This leads to a showdown between the two of them as Bruce finally comes clean and admits that he is a serial killer who has already escaped justice in the US for the murder of at least five women and plans to do the same to Cecily.
Earlier in the play, Bruce tells Cecily that all of his own money is tied up in various manners and convinces her to sign papers (unwittingly) that give all of her money to him.
The final showdown in which Cecily reveals that she has been on to Bruce for some time is both deliciously macabre and incredibly well-delivered. Throughout the play, Bruce’s accent veers from generic American to scholarly English as his mask slips ever increasingly throughout the different acts.
As Bruce descends further towards the manic insanity and his driven need to murder women and take their money, Iain begins removing layers of clothes (not, he doesn’t go THAT far…) He starts the play wearing a tuxedo and then after the intermission we see that the bowtie has gone and soon the suit jacket (leaving Iain in black pants, white shirt and braces - which is a VERY good look if you ask me as it….*chef’s kiss* shows off all of his assets in the very best light).
Some people who saw the play earlier this week said that Iain’s performance was over the top, but he is playing a manically driven and seriously unhinged serial killer and the way he goes from smooth-talking charmer to jittering, twitching, screaming monster is a delight to watch. There is one moment when he begins by talking very quietly and calmly to Cecily and then out of nowhere he bellows something at her and it’s a ‘jump in your seat’ kind of moment as it literally bursts out of him when you least expect it. The way he then goes back into mild-mannered mode within a number of seconds shows a master of his craft.
I’ve waxed on about Iain’s performance, but Charlotte more than matched him, particularly with the end scene where she turns the tables on Bruce. There is a hilarious section just before when Cecily confronts Bruce over empty bottles of hydrogen peroxide which culminates in Bruce furiously denying that he uses it to dye his hair and hide any grey. As Bruce’s carefully created facade begins to crack, it’s an absurd bit of levity in what is otherwise a chilling scene. The outright indignation with which Bruce denies that he dyes his hair is wonderfully over the top and definitely in keeping with his character.
Now that I’ve reviewed the play itself, I’ll get to the bit that all you gals really want to know, which is how many times Iain pulled stances… My answer is A LOT and I think some of that has to do with the easily excitable character he plays and some of it may have been nerves and anxiety on his part.
I don’t think he stopped moving once for the entirety of the play and his list of movements included:
Hands in and out of pockets - I lost count, but would say around 60-80 times during the play
Glasses on and off - this happened a lot, too
Hamstring stretch - at one point
Hand on the butt - I kid you not!!
It also has to be said that there were lots of touches and smiles between Charlotte and Iain throughout the performance and it was heart-warming to see the way his face lit up when he looked at her and you just know that he was so glad to have her there beside him. My heart swelled for Iain just as the final curtain came down and he looked at Charlotte and then up at the descending curtain with a look of both pleasure and relief on his face that after six long years, he finally got back on that horse.
And boy oh boy, it was DEFINITELY worth the wait!
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