Agatha Christie Conference 2017

Dr.Sheppard

Agatha Christie Conference 2017

Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge

Once in a while you realise you have been privileged to share in something very special. An evening event allowed an audience of over 30 Agatha Christie fans to enjoy an exclusive cast reading of the play, A Daughter’s a Daughter by Agatha Christie. Organised by Julius Green, (an independent theatre producer and avid Christie fan) and staring Sophie Hanna and members of The Agatha Christie Theatre Company.

A Daughter’s a Daughter was ordinally written as a play in the 1930s, but was not premiered until July 1956 at the Theatre Royal, Bath, where it ran for one week and eight performances under Christie’s pen name of Mary Westmacott. It was to be the only performance in Christie’s lifetime. It has been performed on stage on two other occasions: at the 2001 Agatha Christie Theatre Festival, and in 2009 in its West End premier, directed by Roy Marsden, and with the cast of The Agatha Christie Theatre Company.

Note: This reading also stared Dr Jamie Bernthal and Dr Mark Aldridge.

Dr.Sheppard

This year's two day conference, held at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, proved to be a great success. As with all of these events, it does depend on the speakers and their chosen topic. There were 26 papers presented to the audience of over 45, along with two keynote Speakers.
Speaker's talks were separated into Panel Topics:
1. The Secret Adversary: Detection and Knowledge
2. In a Glass Darkly: Justice and Cruelty
3. The Unexpected Guest: Social Anxieties and Change
4. The Girdle of Hippolyta: Gender and Sexuality
5. After The Funeral: Christie in Posterity
6. Spider's Web: Unexpected Connections
7. Come Tell Me How You Live: Writing about Christie

Keynote Talk: Dr Merja Makinen: Negotiating the Contradictions: Christie as a writer in the 1920s.
Keynote Talk: Julius Green: Agatha Christie and the Lord Chamberlain; The effect of stage censorship on Christie's work as a dramatist.

shana

@Dr. Sheppard, what is the Agatha Christie Conference all about? I'm reading about it for the first time. The Panel Topics seem very interesting. 

ChristieFanForLife

Gosh, it would be so awesome if these talks were recorded and shown. For Agatha Christie fans who are unable to make it to this conference, this is such a treat and would be a shame if these gems weren't recorded and displayed for us to see. 

Dr.Sheppard

shana said:

@Dr. Sheppard, what is the Agatha Christie Conference all about? I'm reading about it for the first time. The Panel Topics seem very interesting. 

The conference is an opportunity for PhD students to present their study papers to a larger audience, however, it has always been open to a wider audience, with individuals that have researched Agatha Christie. So, the conference attracts individuals with a PhD, Professors, researchers, authors, producers, writers, theatrical producers and directors, bloggers and fans.

Dr.Sheppard

ChristieFanForLife said:

Gosh, it would be so awesome if these talks were recorded and shown. For Agatha Christie fans who are unable to make it to this conference, this is such a treat and would be a shame if these gems weren't recorded and displayed for us to see. 

The conference is not open to being recorded on video. Firstly it generates an income from people paying to attend the event, and Secondly, some of the papers are selected to be placed in a collection of current research on Agatha Christie, and each author is paid for their contribution just like the author of a novel.

Out of interest, each speaker presents for 20 minutes, and joins the panel review for a Q&A session at the end.

shana

@Dr. Sheppard: thank you for the information. Wow! AC on Phd-level. Amazing!!