Jack McMullen as Leonard Vole in Witness for the Prosecution (Picture: Sheila Burnett)

Having seen Witness For The Prosecution, a site-specific crime thriller set in an actual debating chamber near the London Eye, I officially declare the South Bank misunderstood.

Visiting the South Bank is no longer about competing with the throngs of smug life-long EU nationals on the riverbank, throwing their credit cards at the Sea Life Centre and the ‘Coca Cola London Eye’ (Since when?). No – it’s about eschewing all that for a trip to Belvedere Road – just a minute away from the actual riverbank – and visiting the disused County Hall building, which for the next five months houses a gripping and authentic courtroom play.



Witness For The Prosecution, an Agatha Christie drama from the Fifties adapted from her earlier short story, Traitor Hands, has taken a new, temporary home within the London County Council’s disused offices. The building was taken out of use in the mid-Eighties but retains all its early Twentieth Century charm: stern marble pillars reach up to a stately ceiling, and there’s more coffered wood panelling than in a James Bond boardroom.

A court scene from the murder trial in Witness For The Prosecution (Picture: Sheila Burnett)

The elaborate setting would have pleased Christie who, ever the perfectionist, agonised over re-writes to this play before it was staged. Sixty years on Lucy Bailey’s production engulfs the council offices with the real energy of a murder trial. Prosecutors, QCs and accusers thrash up and down the isles – past the audience – to sound designer Mic Pool’s clever, tinned gasps which make ticket-holders sound like a rowdy, authentic bunch.


We’re here to uncover the truth behind the murder of Emily French, a wealthy, older woman, and young upstart Leonard Mole is in the frame. Jack McMullen captures Leonard’s vulnerability excellently, which bolsters the rest of the play’s drama. He doggedly plays the accused with an authentic sense of despair, as he is dragged in and out of court, aghast at his prosecutors and proclaiming his innocence.

Leonard’s emotions overtake his ability to defend himself in court, and his character as a whole is a signifier of the great depth and complexity of Christie’s pen, as the twists and turns unveil themselves later in the play.

Catherine Steadman as Romaine Vole (Picture: Sheila Burnett)

The production swills equally with the might of Christie’s comedy as it does with gripping drama. Not even dark humour: at times the play eases into moments of genuine light relief, throwing new light on characters such as Sir Wilfred, who defends Leonard, who we learn to be both humanely compassionate and dutiful in the eyes of the law, if bumbling at times.

William Dudley’s design captures the uncomfortable, antiquated and perhaps inappropriate sense of theatre that still exists in court rooms today. By using every last part of the space, interruptions are yelled from the highest tiers of the chamber, and the intimate, in-the-round stage in front of the prosecutor’s chair becomes a gravely agreeable gallows, and an eerie midnight back street for scenes set out of the courtroom.

Witness for the Prosecution’s authentic setting, within the disused County Hall (Picture: Sheila Burnett)

Witness For The Prosecution’s best trick is really Christie’s ability to never let an overly complicated narrative outweigh the central focus of the chilling drama. Rather than unpacking an unending, lengthy tale, Christie gets to the point with one simple and damning twist that works a little like the death by hanging at the beginning of the play – it’s a short sharp shock!



Witness for the Prosecution play runs at London County Hall until March 11 2018.

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