THE accomplished fibber fascinated Agatha Christie, but what happens if the liar is also insane and dangerous?

Now fans are the great crime writer are set to have the grey matter teased and disturbed a little, as a production of Love From a Stranger heads to The Everyman in Cheltenham, for a five day run.

A spokesman said: “In Agatha Christie there’s always a mystery to be solved, isn’t there? In her stories and plays, somebody is done away with and the task – which usually falls to a sleuth – is to work out whodunit.

“In Love From a Stranger many of the familiar elements of a Christie mystery are absent, which makes it all the most mystifying. So, it will be a different experience for audiences enjoying a touring production of the play.”

The spokesman added: “The play initially seems to be a drawing room comedy featuring that reliable staple, a meddling spinster aunt. Two young women have won a huge sum in the sweepstake. Mavis plans to travel, while Cecily is finally free to marry her slightly dull fiancé, who is expected back from his administrative job in the Sudan. So, they are letting their flat.

“But then a strange man, introducing himself as Bruce Lovell, comes to inspect it. Cecily instantly falls for him, the fiancé is swiftly ditched, and by the next scene Cecily and Bruce are man and wife and settling in a remote corner of the countryside. The rest of the play is occupied by one overarching question: how much of a mistake will the marriage turn out to be?”

Lucy Bailey, the theatre director said: “What attracted me was the dark undercurrents and how relevant it is, how we don’t know people and what erotic addiction and compulsion blinds us in our lives. The successful liar is what’s so fascinating to Christie. The story could happen any time. We are updating it to the late fifties, but it could be set now. People go with their lovers to isolated places to have a romance. It absolutely is current.”

The dates for the diary are June 19 to June 23.

Tickets: www.everymantheatre.org.uk/ | 01242 572573