THE COURT DRAMA in the wake of a murder of passion is arguably the most enthralling context for a thrilling story to unfold. Put it in the hands of one of South Africa’s finest directors, know that it sparkles with the words of the queen of murder mysteries herself, and you’ve got something that skips the boundaries of period drama and takes on a universality that will fill houses. This is what you can expect of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution which performs at the Pieter Toerien Theatre, Montecasino for one more week, until 30 June, and then at the Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town from 4 July until 10 August.

This work is unabashedly a crowd pleaser which will keep even the direst of cynics, and the dourest of the easily bored on the edge of their respective seats. It’s articulate and easy to follow, with twists in its tail that will have the hairs on the back of your neck standing at attention. The fact that it has an interval, at a perfect cliffhanger moment, will have you urging the time to pass so that the plot can unravel.

And yes, it’s a period drama. It’s set unequivocally in the early 1950s, with a sense of properness that evokes British tale-telling of the ilk of Netflix’s The Bletchley Circle penned by Guy Burt, that takes all the little bits and pieces of an analogue world into close consideration. And yet, unlike most period pieces, this is less an essay on time and fashions than one that embraces beautiful narrative with a fine handle and a good yarn unwound at the perfect pace. This is not to say that the set and costumes miss a beat in reflecting on the time frame. The set is a brilliant play of context which will take you from the barrister’s offices into the street and into the courts, with some shifts of constructions.

But it’s also not only about the exciting pace of life and death, guilty or not guilty at the docks. The work is liberally spiced with a strong sense of wit. It might make you think of the crisp and oft vicious repartee between legal minds performed by Simon Callow and David Fleeshman in the Lynda la Plante series of the 1990s, Trial and Retribution: humour that is quick and lethal but hilarious, reflecting on a kind of sword fighting between intellectual equals, albeit men on the opposite sides of the court.

The work is uniformly beautifully cast, with an understanding of the kind of characters that populate Christie’s novels. But then, there is Peter Terry in the role of the magistrate, Mr Justice Wainwright. Up there in the seat of ultimate decision making on this set, and under the heavy wig appropriate to 1950s British legal tradition, he encapsulates a sophisticated and powerful understanding of the role of justice, one that remains indelibly tipped with levity.

It’s a beautiful production, honed to a polish on the kind of level that you may remember from court dramas on Springbok Radio from decades ago. It’s like a step into a time where rules of conduct and beauty were immutable and immaculate, and the baddies are still the rottennest of apples. You simply cannot allow yourself not to find out who dunnit, here.

• Witness for the Prosecution is written and adapted for stage by Agatha Christie and directed by Alan Swerdlow. It features creative input by Sarah Roberts (production design); Denis Hutchinson (lighting) and Adam Howard (sound), with wigs by Alistair Pringle and set construction by Nadine Minnaar, and is performed by Cassandra Brussel, Graham Hopkins, Mike Huff, Craig Jackson, Brett Krüger, Bulelo Landman, Matthew Lotter, Dianne Simpson, Jordan Soares, Sharon Spiegel Wagner, Mikah Stojakovic and Peter Terry, until 30 June 2024 at the Pieter Toerien Theatre, Montecasino, Fourways, and between 4 July and 10 August at Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town, where Cassandra Brussel and Bulelo Landman will be replaced by LAMTA graduates.