The set-up is relatively straightforward. If Jonathan Panhacker lives until Wednesday 18th his financial arrangement with his son, Henry, to inherit ?100,000 on that date will come to pass. In his turn, Henry has promised to invest the money in a business scheme with Sam Fletcher and Sam Bogosian. When Jonathan suddenly drops dead, Henry, Sam and his secretary, Sally, the Fiddlers Three of the title, scheme to keep him ‘alive’ until the 18th. This involves a double impersonation, a dubious death certificate and a revelation about an earlier murder. Complications arise in the second act when various people who knew Jonathan arrive at their hideaway hotel demanding to see him.
Like many of Christie’s later, and weaker, titles it contains good ideas but her earlier genius for exploiting them has deserted her; if she had written this play 20 years before she would have developed the plot in a more convincing manner. There is an unlikely impersonation and some unconvincing business with pill bottles before the play culminates in the unmasking of an improbable murderer. It cannot be coincidence that many of her later plays—
Unsurprisingly, her producer Peter Saunders was not anxious to present it in the West End, correctly presuming that it would receive a critical mauling. As it was, the local press was hardly kinder and phrases such as ‘entertaining, amusing but undemanding play’, ‘lightest vein—bordering on farce’ and ‘the plot is predictable, witless and shallow’ peppered what reviews there were.
As early as October 1958, the first seeds were sown in Notebook 15, although it would be over a dozen years before she began to cultivate it seriously. Obviously, even this late in her career, she was revisiting her faithful Notebooks to find exploitable ideas:
Oct. 1958
Projects
A Play—light-hearted (a Spider’s Web type) Where?—girl’s school?
Or Cheating Death parties? Pretending a death? or smuggling away a natural death—devoted fluffy secretary?—a silly type deliberately chosen? Boardroom—K. doubles as wife and corpse—wig etc.—Grand muddle —
The ‘girl’s school’ idea surfaced as
Notebook 4 contains most of the plotting, but, as with the later book titles, the notes themselves are vague and unfocussed although the list of characters is accurate. A minor mystery about this play is the naming of the two main characters; Panhacker and Bogosian are two of the most unusual names in the entire Christie output.
Scene—an office
Mr Willis Stanley a bit off- story
His friend Mr. Bogosian
Nellie (M) devoted rather talkative and scatty
The Penthouse owner—Very rich man lives in W. Indies
His son or nephew? Make over all his English assets
Going to finance—only a fortnight to go
Then goes up after lunch—or is lift out of order—so he comes in here—sits in other room—found dead
M. says it will be her husband or brother—Go out to buy me
an onion [to induce tears]
Jeremy Brooker Brown
That’s all right—he’s got to be alive—Geraldine—Go on upstairs with things
Gina
Sally Lee
Sam Fletcher
Jan Bogosian
Henry Panhacker
Solomon Panhacker
An Air Hostess
Detective Inspector Wylie
Mr. Moss
Various titles were considered and
This Mortal Coil
Operation Deadline
Sixpence Off
Deadline
Fiddle de Death
In Notebook 39, under the mysterious heading ‘M and J Play’, we find two attempts at a ‘death duties’ play. The first sketch has echoes of ‘Jane in Search of a Job’, originally published in August 1924 and collected ten years later in
Death duties—girl is dead—great fortune is coming to her—idea is she has to appear alive for one more week. Man advertises for young lady—5ft 7in, fair—hair slight build, blue eyes etc. First scene interesting girls whittled down—one is chosen to impersonate girl—J
The second is nearer to the eventual plot, but this was not developed until Notebook 4 where it becomes recognisably
Death Duties—a natural death body has to be hidden for a week—impersonation by M or J—undertaker helps. Office—M and her two employers
Mr Leonard—big, bouncy, common
Mr Arkwright—melancholy—dreary
They are in a jam—what to do
Sally!
Spanning a period of 16 years, the play concerns the attempts of the young King Akhnaton to introduce a new religion to Egypt. His failure spells tragedy for himself, his queen and, ultimately, Egypt.
There are almost 50 pages of notes for this title, mainly in Notebook 61. Called by Christie’s husband, Sir Max Mallowan, ‘the most beautiful play’ she ever wrote, it is based on the real-life Pharoah Akhnaton of Egypt in 1375 BC Although written in 1937 it was not published until 1973, with a blurb written by Agatha Christie herself. Shortly after its completion Christie sent it to the actor (later Sir) John Gielgud. His reply, which she kept, expressed his admiration for the play while declining to become involved in a production. In fact
Although by no means a typical Agatha Christie play, it does contain Christie-like elements—there is a death by poisoning, masterminded by an unsuspected villain using an innocent party.
There are 40 pages of notes for this play. These include extensive background material as well as sketches for the play itself. The very first page of notes begins with a cast list (in the published version Mutnezmet, Nefertiti’s sister, has become Nezzemut), and this is followed by a sketch of the opening scene:
