‘Towards Zero’ Is Next to Nothing From Christie

Yes, Agatha Christie could spin some compelling whodunits. Works such as “Murder on the Orient Express” and “The Mousetrap” are like Rubik’s Cubes for the stage.

But, let’s face it, Agatha Christie could also be a hack.

“Towards Zero,” her deservedly obscure whodunit, revived by the Golden West College Theatre Ensemble in the campus’ Patio Theatre, is Christie at her worst. So deadening in its expository dialogue that the play is closer to a staged version of the Thomas Guide than anything Professor Rubik invented, “Towards Zero” is one of those mysteries with such diminishing interest that the mystery--and any solution--is almost beside the point.

The real mystery here is who but supreme Christie fanatics would enjoy such stale material, and why would this student ensemble, under the joint direction of Renata Florin and Charles Mitchell, view this as a viable vehicle.

The setting is one of those typically semidecadent Christie haunts, the Cornwall coastline manor of Lady Tressilian (Florin), who’s quite uneasy with the guest arrangement. Son Nevile (John Kraemer) has brought along not only his catty wife, Kay (Jenny McClelland), but also his sweet-natured ex, Audrey (Gayle Helvig). Fellow guests Thomas (Greg Stich) and Matthew (Frederick C. Shumake)--the stock Christie intellectual loners--and Kay’s rakish pal Ted (Steve Lara) don’t get the arrangement, and neither do we.

Christie strains to have her characters explain this setup, a sure sign that your plot is in big trouble. In fact, “Towards Zero” has the perfect equation for a campy farce, not a murder mystery, and you can sense Christie getting lost in a swamp of mixed genres. Like jerked-around puppets, the characters go through their paces, each a potential suspect in the murder that happens off-stage near the end of Act 1. Act 2 is less plotting than chess-as-writing--terrible stuff because, for a story about passions and jealousies that grow out of control, “Towards Zero” is itself passionless, purely interested in plot manipulations.

That’s what many Christie fans go for, of course, so they may go for this play, particularly in light of its rarity. The production tries to increase the fun factor with ballots for audience members to fill out (“Who committed the murder?”), a prize giveaway and a post-performance tally of how many votes each character-suspect received.

BE THERE

“Towards Zero,” a Golden West College Theatre Ensemble production of Agatha Christie’s mystery at Golden West College Patio Theatre, Golden West College, Huntington Beach. 8:30 p.m. Sunday, July 12-13 and 17-18. $6-$8. (714) 895-8378.