Appointment with Death (1945 play)

Appointment with Death
Written by	Agatha Christie
Date premiered	29 January 1945
Original language	English

Appointment with Death is a 1945 play by crime writer Agatha Christie. It is based on her 1938 novel of the same name.

Christie is silent on the writing of both the book and the play in her autobiography. Her biography states that she started writing the play in a burst of enthusiasm after being involved in the preparations for Murder on the Nile which was being presented by her actor friend Francis L. Sullivan. The writing was completed by March 1944 and preparations were made towards the end of the year for an opening in Glasgow before transferring to the West End theatre. Christie wrote to her agent, Edmund Cork, the month before that "it really seems quite impossible that the play can be ready for Glasgow!" Nevertheless, the play did open there at the King's Theatre on 29 January 1945 and then opened in the West End on 31 March 1945 at the Piccadilly Theatre. The play was not well received by the critics although box office receipts at the start were better than those for And Then There Were None eighteen months earlier. The play was directed by Terence de Marney who had played Philip Lombard in And Then There Were None. The play closed on 5 May after just 42 performances.

The original West End production is most notable for the appearance of Joan Hickson in the role of Miss Pryce. Christie was so taken with her performance that she wrote to Hickson and stated that she hoped she would one day play the character of Miss Marple. Hickson was later cast in this role in 1984 in the BBC television series.

The adaptation of the book is notable for being one of the most radical reworkings of a novel Christie ever did, not only eliminating Hercule Poirot from the story, but changing the identity of the killer. In the play, the ill Mrs Boynton commits suicide and drops several red herrings that pointed to her family members as possible suspects, hoping that they would suspect each other and therefore continue to live in her shadow even after her death, whereas in the novel Lady Westholme is the murderess. In the play, Lady Westholme becomes a purely comic character.

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