REVIEW: The Witness for the Prosecution

 The Witness for the Prosecution
Author: Agatha Christie

The Witness for the Prosecution is one of Agatha Christie's most famous short stories. The story has been adapted for the stage, radio, television and film. The story was originally published in the US in 1925 (Flynn's Weekly as The Traitor's Hands). It was included in The Hound of Death short story collection in the UK in 1933 and in The Witness For the Prosecution and Other Stories (US, 1948). The stage play was published in The Mousetrap and Other Plays (1993). 

Agatha Christie wrote the stage play version in 1953, and the story was made into a movie starring Marlene Dietrich in 1957. Radio City Playhouse presented a radio drama of the story in 1949. It has been adapted for television multiple times...the latest in 2016. And BBC4 Radio "modernized" the story for a radio drama in the early 2000s. I'm sure there are other adaptations of this story that I have missed, as this tale has been retold many, many times in just about every format possible. I wonder if Christie realized that she was writing a classic when she first penned this story? 

For a story to be adapted so many times, it has to be good! But...I have to admit that I have avoided reading, watching or listening to this story for a very stupid reason. When I was in high school, I acted and sang in every school production right down the line. I designed sets, helped block scenes, and really put my heart into every production. Then....my junior year, I was so delighted that the drama club was going to put on Witness for the Prosecution! But....the head of the drama department had been replaced by a former English teacher of mine who really didn't like me, and made no attempt to hide it. She really went out of her way to be....horrible. For no reason. I always did my work. I was respectful. I was always active in class. She just (for whatever reason) couldn't stand me. Even fellow students commented on it. And....she was in charge of auditions. I gave my best audition....followed her directions, read every line, discussed why I wanted to be in the play (Christie was my favorite author!). And three days later when cast and crew were posted ---- I was completely left out. Not even on the stage crew. This teacher stood outside her classroom door as I looked at the list and just smiled at me....a catty, nasty smile. And then she laughed. Seriously -- she smiled and LAUGHED. I learned years later that this teacher did not like my mother, and I suppose whatever issue they had trickled down down to me. After being totally left out of the play and that weird animosity from a teacher.....I just avoided this story. Never watched the film....avoided any television episodes....refused to read it. Silly I know.....but the whole event really pissed me off. She even left me off the stage and set crew assignments!!!! 

So....36 years later....it's time to get over it! People will be people....it was unfortunate, but that's no reason to avoid a classic story by my favorite author! I finally decided to break my boycott of Witness. It's not Agatha Christie's fault that I was slighted when I was 16 years old. 

I'm so glad I finally read this story! It's excellent! And it definitely has that famous Christie twist! I also watched the 2016 television adaptation. It was very very good! There were some pretty big changes to the story, but they were fleshing it out into an almost 2 hour movie. I have the BBC4 Radio dramatization as well. I haven't listened to it yet....I will amend this review when I have. I will read and review the play once I get to it in my travels through Christie in publication order. Got a couple decades to go first! I do know that Christie changed the ending when she wrote the stage play. She was dissatisfied with how the short story left things....so she revamped the ending for the play. 

I listened to an audio version of this short story (Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories, HarperAudio). The audio for all of the stories in the collection that were originally published in the Hound of Death story collection were read by Christopher Lee. They were obviously pulled from an audio book of Hound of Death, as Christopher Lee also read all the HOD stories in the audio book of The Golden Ball and Other Stories that I listened to (it even still had Lee's intro before the first story that he was reading Hound of Death by Agatha Christie). So glad that Lee read Christie's strange tales that were collected into HOD -- his voice just caters to horror/supernatural/bizarre stories. While Witness isn't supernatural or bizarre, it is diabolical. Lee was a perfect narrator! 

On to the next!