In her Autobiography, Christie claimed that the success of And Then There Were None set her on the path of being a playwright as well as a writer of books and that only she would adapt her works for the stage from then on, and that The Hollow would be her next play.
Bertie Meyer, a backer of plays, whose association with Christie's stage works dated back to Alibi in 1928, signed a contract to produce The Hollow in 1950 and plans were made with Christie's agent, Edmund Cork, to open the play in London to coincide with the start of the Festival of Britain.
These plans came to nothing and Christie was annoyed at the treatment she was starting to receive from Meyer on this and his slow response to staging another play she had written, Towards Zero.
[4] During the year, Peter Saunders, a young and new theatrical producer had sustained a significant loss when he staged an adaptation by Dan Sutherland of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1913 book, The Poison Belt.
Desperate to make up these losses, he cast around for a play that he could take on tour which would not involve too much expense and which would be sure to attract a paying audience.
He recouped his losses and, more importantly, brought himself to the attention of Christie who, annoyed with the slow progress of Bertie Meyer, gave The Hollow to Saunders instead.
[5] Saunders faced great difficulties in staging the play, including refusals to assist in casting or finance from colleagues in the theatrical world, who felt that the piece was badly written.
One problem was the casting of the star part of Lady Angkatell and it was Saunders who hit upon the idea of Jeanne De Casalis, a choice that Christie did not accept at first but which she later admitted was right.
[6] The play opened at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge on 10 February 1951, although Christie was absent as she was in Iraq accompanying her husband Max Mallowan on one of his archaeological expeditions.
Hundreds of miles away, she was as nervous as ever at the public reaction, although she was reassured by telegrams which told her that the opening night was a success.
Even so, Saunders and director Hubert Gregg had to make some amendments to take out some of the unintentional comic moments that had occurred on the first night.
[7] After an eight-week tour, the play opened at the Fortune Theatre in London on 7 June 1951 to an enthusiastic press response.
It transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre on 8 October 1951[8] and ran for a total of eleven months and 376 performances,[9] enabling Christie to see it on her return.
[8] Christie herself was so pleased at the efforts that Saunders made that she took him to lunch just after Christmas 1951 and gave him a brown paper package.
The action of the play passes in the garden room of Sir Henry Angkatell's house, The Hollow, about eighteen miles from London.
The Angkatell clan briefly leaves the stage, and Gudgeon returns with a maid in training, the working-class Doris.
A car is heard, and Gudgeon greets the final guests, John and Gerda Cristow, a successful but condescending doctor and his slow-witted wife.
To break the tension, Henry mentions that film star Veronica Craye is currently residing nearby, in a cottage called Dovecotes.
Midge discusses her employment at a dress shop, rejecting her cousins' pleas to accept their financial support and aristocratic lifestyle.
Sir Henry then passes through the room with a pair of revolvers on his way to the shooting range, revealing that Lucy is an accomplished markswoman while convincing Midge to join him at the targets.
Colquohoun recommends that Gerda hire a solicitor before making a statement, but she declines, and describes her entrance as the audience observed immediately after the shooting.
They note that Edward denies Cristow having any final words, while Sir Henry backs Midge's version of events.
Henrietta returns, responds frankly to the inspector that she and John were romantically involved, and asserts that Gerda remains oblivious to the affair.
Sir Henry enters, and upon being questioned about his firearm collection, says that the gun Gerda was holding at the time of the murder was among them, and that he had brought it to the target alley but had subsequently found it missing.
Lucy enters, dismisses Gudgeon, and reveals that the butler has been attempting to cover for her – the gun had been in her basket of eggs, though she claims not to remember why.
Gerda tells Henrietta that the cut up scraps are in her leatherworking bag, and confides that she witnessed John's infidelity with Veronica, and therefore had to kill him.
The reviewer felt that a chorus who stated the suspect's motives in any stage whodunit would "spare the author trouble and the audience tedium" but went on to say that, "once the fatal shot has been fired and the police arrive to ask questions there can be nothing but admiration for the impudent skill with which she directs suspense first this way, then that, and yet contrives to let certainty arrive in due course with an effect of genuine surprise."