THE UNEXPECTED GUEST
I love when Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills does Agatha Christie plays! Judging by the appreciative audience my friend and I were a part of, I have a feeling everyone does!
I also love anything written by Agatha Christie, and no one does her plays better than Theatre 40! I’m always grateful to the producers for bringing her work to us.
(L-R) Todd Andrew Ball, Lee Grober, Diane Linder, David Hunt Stafford, and Katyana Rocker-Cook. Photo by Gabriel Tejeda-Benitez, as is the one above.
In this case, I had never even heard of The Unexpected Guest before! (I was just relieved to discover that it is not about me.) I looked it up when I got home from seeing it, and it turns out there’s never been an American or British movie of it, which explains my nescience. So this is an absolutely wonderful experience that this theatre is affording us, and I’m heavily suggesting that you drop whatever else you’re planning to do this weekend, and go see it because it’s the last weekend for this intriguing offering. (I’m so sorry to be telling you about it so late in the run, but I hadn’t had the time to see it until this past weekend myself.) I have only one quarrel with the production, and that is the lighting, but I will tell you about that in a little bit. First I must tell you of all the positives.
The acting of the entire nine-person cast is spot-on; we know exactly what each person’s character is. And that makes it so much more difficult to figure out who the killer is, which is so fun. My pals and I kept changing who we thought it was! And there’s a lot of humor throughout, as well, which is always a bonus in a whodunit.
Riley Introcaso and Katyana Rocker-Cook. Photo by Gabriel Tejeda-Benitez.
As good as all the actors are, I must say that the action really picked up for me when Riley Introcaso, as the deceased man’s emotionally-disturbed (to put it mildly) brother, Jan, came on, with his tons-of-energy character. I have a feeling some may think he’s a tad over the top, but as a former teacher, I’ve definitely seen kids like this before. Actually, Riley and Nick Trafton, as the police sergeant, are my two faves, and no—not because they’re young guys, but rather due to that they made me laugh the most.
Lee Grober, as the “unexpected guest” himself, is the impetus for all the action, and then the glue that holds it together; he does so admirably. And I must also give a shout-out to Eve Sigall, the grande dame of the cast, who plays the mother of the deceased man so realistically that, at one point, I thought she was coughing as herself, instead of as the sickly character! I almost ran up to the stage with a bottle of water for her!
On the technical side, Jeff G. Rack’s set is perfect, as always; it really sets the mood right from the get-go. The second the lights come on, (well, a tiny bit of light, actually,) we feel familiar with the location. By the way, I absolutely detest dead animal heads on any wall, but in this case, since the murder victim had been a big hunter, they were semi-necessary to the story. So I just tried not to look up that far.
Diane Linder and Eve Sigall. Photo by Gabriel Tejeda-Benitez.
Now, here’s the only negative in the entire presentation, not just for me, but also for the several people I spoke with. And it’s a big one. I understand that shows like to design the stage lighting to set the scene the way they envision it. Heck, even I studied lighting in college, (and dated my professor, to boot, so I knew the art even better,) so I appreciate the effort, but this is theater, not real life, and we want to see the actors, not notice the lighting, especially in a bad light! (See what I did there?)
The lighting in the first half hour or so of The Unexpected Guest is soooo dark that my friend said it was hurting her eyes and putting her to sleep. And that’s exactly what I was going through, as well. Of course, Theatre 40 is not the only theater that is guilty of this, so all venues have to stop all the uncomfortable “artistic” lighting. They need to think of the eye health and comfort of the audience members. We beg of them.
There is one tiny situation with the cast that confused me a bit. I don’t know why they chose to have a real actor sitting there deceased for so long because we never see the front of him. What if the guy needs to sneeze or cough? They could’ve just had a blowup doll in a wig. Because he’s an actor, I kept thinking that the character was going to wind-up being alive, which made me not pay enough attention to the rest of that first very important scene. So don’t make the same mistake when you see it.
The lovely set. Photo by Karen Salkin.
As to Theatre 40 itself, I always tell everyone that it’s the easiest cultural experience in this entire city! The location is in the least busy part of Beverly Hills, there’s free underground parking just a few steps from the entrance, it has good sightlines on all three sides, a nice staff, and the most affordable snacks in town! And it was good to see so many young people there this time, such as my new besties, Natasha and Matthew, especially on a beautiful Sunday afternoon! And everyone was having a wonderful time.
So I recommend that you go there yourself this weekend, and enjoy The Unexpected Guest while you have this chance.
The Unexpected Guest running through April 19, 2026
Theatre 40 241 S. Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills
310-364-0535 www.theatre40.org
