Agatha Christie’s Lost Play

Sometime in the mid 1920’s, long before the heady days of ‘And then there were none‘ and ‘The Mousetrap‘, Agatha Christie wrote her first play. It was called ‘The Lie’, and it was far more in the strain of Mary Westmacott than the Queen of Crime. It was also more than a little autobiographical.

In the mid 1920’s, Agatha’s personal life was in disarray. Her marriage to Archie was collapsing, due to his affair with Nancy Neele, the younger woman, who he had bonded with over their shared love of golf. Agatha was desperate to save her marriage to Archie, and this turmoil and heartache is clearly echoed in ‘The Lie’, a play that had been labelled a lost play due to it never being published. (You can read more about this period of Agatha’s life in this book.)

The Plot

The Lie centres all it’s actions on one night. Anna has two daughters, Nan and Nell. Nan is married to John, but the marriage is an unhappy one, due in no short part to John’s obsession with her younger sister (they spend a lot of time playing golf…). Nan is pushed towards another man, despite being deeply in love with her husband. On the night that the play takes place, Nan has disappeared. John suspects her affair, and only a lie by sister Nell, who John trusts and adores, can save her marriage. Will Nell lie to protect her sister, and whether John will believe it, is the crux of this very emotional drama.

Autobiographical details

There are so many details in The Lie that could be seen as autobiographical. The use of the name Nan for the adulterous heroine is suggestive, as Archie’s mistress was Nancy Neele. The fact that Christie saved the marriage of John and Nan, shows that she truly believed that marriage was important and worth saving, maybe making a plea to Archie to do the same, whilst also pushing Nell out of the picture so she couldn’t be a temptation any more. The relationship between Nell and John clearly has parallels with Archie and Nell – the older man younger woman scenario, the bonding over their shared love of golf, something Agatha wasn’t so keen on. Agatha clearly believed that the marriage should be saved, that John, aka Archie, should stay with his wife, rather than his younger passion.

Where to listen?

I recently listened to the full play on BBC Sounds, but I believe this is no longer available. You can still listen on Youtube 

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