MY FAST AND FURIOUS INTRODUCTION TO AGATHA CHRISTIE

In MAY 2017, WELLINGTON SQUARE BOOKSHOP's Fiction Book Club scheduled us to read "AND THEN THERE WERE NONE" (1939), which I thoroughly enjoyed. Until last year, I had never read anything by AGATHA CHRISTIE, who is considered the WORLD'S BEST-SELLING MYSTERY WRITER. 

Coincidentally, my SORORITY ALUMNI Book Club decided that we needed to read an AGATHA CHRISTIE book and chose "THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD" (1926), which we'll be discussing this week. It was a complete MYSTERY all the way to the end and by many is considered THE BEST CRIME NOVEL OF ALL TIME. 

Yesterday I was invited to join my friends JOYCE and CONNIE to see a play at the FULTON OPERA HOUSE in Lancaster, PA. The play was "THE MOUSETRAP" (1952), written as a PLAY by AGATHA CHRISTIE. (I swear, she's making a comeback!) It has been running continuously in LONDON since 1952 (my birth year).  THAT is amazing, isn't it?

The play was EXTRAORDINARY. So many twists and turns - what I'm now beginning to see as AGATHA CHRISTIE's style. Every single character is a potential SUSPECT. This makes the storyline so exciting and keeps your mind jumping back and forth from character to character with suspicion. The actors were so PERFECTLY CAST!! And the SET DESIGN, we all agreed was EXQUISITE.

Photo I took at the Theater yesterday - hardly looks real.

If you haven't been to the FULTON OPERA HOUSE in Lancaster, you might want to make a point of it one of these days. I found it's history fascinating.

• It was named after a local STEAM ENGINE PIONEER, ROBERT FULTON. 
• The building itself sits where Lancaster's PRE-REVOLUTIONARY JAIL stood in 1737. 
• The back wall of the theater is actually the original wall from the JAIL'S COURTYARD.
• In 1763 a vigilante group named "THE PAXTANG BOYS" massacred the last of the CONESTOGA INDIANS being held there for their protection. 
• PERFORMANCES didn't take place in the building until 1863. 
• The first play, "OTHELLO" was performed to benefit WIDOWS and ORPHANS of the CIVIL WAR. 
• Around the turn of the century the building began to "lose it's luster" and became a SECOND-RATE MOVIE HOUSE. 
• In 1957 it was finally transformed back into a PERFORMING ARTS THEATER with a new movie screen installed as well.
• A $9.5 MILLION RECONSTRUCTION project in 1995 brought the THEATER back to it's VICTORIAN elegance.

Somebody has a SENSE OF HUMOR. As you enter the Theater, there is a STATUE OF ROBERT FULTON holding........... yes, a MOUSETRAP!

JOAN