Verdict: Theatre Royal, Bath

ALL the ingredients are there for Britain's best-selling author to create one of her usual pot-boilers – the gossipy maid, the rain-coated detective, the lethal medicine, even the body in the library. But this is not your traditional Agatha Christie fare.

The Agatha Christie Theatre Company is dedicated to performing work written specifically for live performances by crime's undisputed queen. Most of her major successes on both stage and screen have come from adaptations of her page-turning book thrillers and few, by contrast, were written straight to stage.

So no Miss Marple, no Hercule Poirot not even a Tommy or a Tuppence. Instead of tantalising clues and red herrings we get literary allusions and operatic arias leading us through the plot.

Professor Karl Hendryk, his invalid wife Anya and her cousin Lisa Koletzky have settled in London in 1958 as refugees from an unnamed European country. He rejects a spoilt rich girl as a private pupil but is persuaded to reconsider when her father offers to pay for revolutionary treatment for his wife. But the new student's intentions are far from academic and there is murder afoot.

There is a slow build to the action and the second act has a couple of typically intriguing Christie twists but this is an examination of emotions and morality rather than a search for weapons and killers.

In an extremely competent company, Robert Duncan leads the cast admirably as the idealistic Hendryk whose beliefs continually make life difficult for those around him. Dawn Steele also impresses as the faithful if frustrated housekeeper Lisa.

The real verdict on this touring production is not the one which comes from the inevitable off-stage trial but on how you like your Christie – full blooded or philosophical.

Verdict, directed by Joe Harmston, runs until Saturday with tickets priced from £16.50 to £32.50. Telephone 01225 448844 for details.

6/10

ALAN KING