Spider's Web is a comedy-thriller play by Agatha Christie, first performed in 1954.
Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, second wife of a diplomat, finds a dead body in the drawing room of their country house — the body of Oliver Costello, the man for whom the first Mrs Hailsham-Brown left her husband. To prevent unpleasant attention on her husband, who's about to get an important career boost, and his young daughter, who's still traumatised from mistreatment by her mother, Clarissa persuades her house guests to help her arrange for the body to be found somewhere else. Before they can get it out of the house, however, the plan is complicated by the arrival of an uncomfortably observant police inspector on the trail of an anonymous tip-off.
The original production starred Margaret Lockwood, for whom the role of Clarissa was specifically written, and also included Desmond Llewelyn in the bit part of Constable Jones.
In 2000, a novel based on the play was released, adapted by Charles Osborne.
This play contains examples of:
- Alone with the Psycho: At the climax of the play, Clarissa figures out who really murdered Costello while she's alone in the room with the murderer. Fortunately, the police arrive in the nick of time to prevent her becoming the next victim.
- Cassandra Truth: Early in the play, it's established that Clarissa has a knack for telling tall tales with utter conviction, but she notes ruefully that she's never as persuasive when she's really trying to convince someone of an important truth. This comes back later when she decides she's going to have to confess everything to Inspector Lord, only to find that he doesn't believe a word of it.
- Golf Clubbing: Costello was killed by a blow to the head by some blunt object, eventually revealed to be a golf club.
- Good Stepmother: Clarissa is a much better mother to Pippa than Pippa's biological mother ever was, with several characters who have seen the before and after remarking how much better Pippa is doing now, and is willing to go to remarkable lengths to protect her.
- Honorary Uncle: One of Clarissa's guests, Sir Rowland Delahaye, is an old family friend who's known her since she was a child. She calls him Uncle Rowly.
- Invisible Writing: An apparently innocent paper found in a secret compartment in an antique desk turns out to have the address list of a drug ring written on it in invisible ink.
- I Wished You Were Dead: Young Pippa finds a book about "black magic" and, after a run-in with her mother's hated boyfriend Oliver Costello, casts a spell to kill him. When she finds his body, she's convinced she's responsible, but is too hysterical to explain why she thinks that, leading Clarissa to believe she actually killed him and go to extreme lengths to shield her from suspicion.
- Macguffin: The root of the trouble is something hidden in the house by the previous owner, which unscrupulous people are trying to get hold of. Until the denouement, nobody except the murderer even knows what it is, just that it's said to be worth thousands of pounds.
- Mr. Smith: Henry Hailsham-Brown is involved in sensitive negotiations with a foreign dignitary who for reasons of secrecy is to be referred to as "Mr Jones". Clarissa lampshades that it's very obviously a pseudonym.
- Never One Murder: It turns out that Costello is actually the second person the murderer has killed while attempting to secure the Macguffin. At the climax of the play, Clarissa nearly becomes the third.
- Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: The play ends with Clarissa saying to herself... or perhaps to the audience "Exit Clarissa ... mysteriously", before disappearing into the Secret Passage.
- Secret Room: The house has a secret passage between the drawing room and the library, which features several times, including as a hiding place for the body.
- Significant Name Overlap:
- Several mysterious events turn out to be a result of Clarissa Hailsham-Brown being mistaken for a Mrs Brown who was connected with the house's former owner. It's also revealed that Mrs Brown deliberately arranged for the Hailsham-Browns to lease the house in order to create and benefit from the confusion.
- The play also includes two minor characters named Jones. In-universe, there's no connection between them, but the coincidence foreshadows the later more significant reveal.
- Taking the Heat: When it becomes apparent that Inspector Lord has figured out they knew about the murder and have been trying to cover it up, Clarissa (who still thinks Pippa did it) confesses to it herself, claiming that she surprised an intruder in the dark and didn't mean to hit him so hard. Fortunately, the real murderer is uncovered before she suffers any consequences for it.
- Title Drop: At the end of the play, Clarissa looks back on the evening she's had and is reminded of the famous quote from Walter Scott's poem Marmion: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave,/ When first we practise to deceive!"
- Vorpal Pillow: At the climax of the play, the real murderer attempts to suffocate Pippa with a sofa cushion while she's napping in the drawing room, to prevent her revealing something that might give away his motive.
