Archer is guilty, says play audience

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, DEC. 7. Novelist Lord Jeffrey Archer's attempt to have a little fun while awaiting next week's trial for alleged perjury has not quite turned out the way he might have wished. An audience acting as jury at his behest turned in a guilty verdict against him on Tuesday evening after watching his latest play ``The Accused'' in which he cast himself as a doctor suspected of poisoning his wife.

The play which was first staged the day he was charged by a court in September had its London premiere on Tuesday where each member of the audience had a push-button pad which they had to press at the end of the play to indicate their judgment. And the vote against Dr. Sherwood played by Lord Archer was 333 to 254. It was his idea to leave the denouement open-ended and have the audience decide whodunit. A favourable verdict would have certainly boosted his morale, exactly a week ahead of his trial at the Old Bailey but hire-wire acts can often go horribly wrong; and at Haymarket yesterday things certainly didn't go according to the script for Lord Archer.

Though he has denied it, the timings of his play have raised eyebrows reinforcing his critics' charge that he is a self- publicist. He insists it was a sheer coincidence that the play got to be premiered the day he was charged, just as it is a coincidence again that it opened in London on the eve of the start of his trial. Dismissing the charge that he ``fixed'' the timing to heighten the real-life drama of his alleged misdemeanour, he told The Times: ``You couldn't say I'll write a play and I'll be arrested on the opening day.'' But even he doesn't deny that it was his idea to play the doctor accused of killing his wife, though he says it was intended more as a challenge rather than with an eye on its publicity appeal. He is happy with his performance, but critics panned it as indeed they panned the play. ``I had the sensation of watching a conjurer pulling some dead rabbits out some very old hats'', said The Guardian critic of a play.

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Section  : International
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