Appointment With Death

In the sun-drenched lounge of the King Solomon Hotel in Jerusalem, the Boynton family arrives as part of a Middle Eastern tour, immediately drawing the attention of fellow travelers with their unnatural silence and immobility. At the center sits Mrs. Boynton, a vast, obese invalid resembling an obscene Buddha or a monstrous spider in the web of her family's lives, her gimlet gaze enforcing absolute control over her stepchildren: the subdued elder son Lennox and his frustrated wife Nadine, the rebellious younger son Raymond, and the fragile stepdaughter Ginevra. External observers, including the forthright young doctor Sarah King, the eminent physician Dr. Gerard, the American Jefferson Cope, the autocratic Lady Westholme, her sparring partner Alderman Higgs, the timid Miss Pryce, and the authoritative Colonel Carbery, comment on the family's eerie dynamics, sensing underlying cruelty and resentment. As conversations reveal glimpses of abuse—Mrs. Boynton's history as a prison warden who adopted her stepchildren after their mother's death—the stage is set for escalating tensions, with Raymond's quiet desperation toward Sarah hinting at forbidden romance, and Nadine's secret affair providing early motives for potential violence.

A week later, the group reaches the isolated travelers' camp in the ancient city of Petra, where the rose-red cliffs amplify the sense of entrapment. Early afternoon brings heightened conflicts: Mrs. Boynton forbids excursions, forcing Ginevra to feign illness and lie down, while her stepchildren chafe under her thumb, their movements puppet-like and voices automaton-flat. Raymond's stolen moments with Sarah are crushed by his stepmother's intervention, and Nadine confronts Mrs. Boynton directly about the family's stifled lives, echoing Sarah's earlier outrage at the psychological tyranny. Comic relief punctuates the dread through Lady Westholme's imperious demands on the dragoman guide—insisting he be called Mohammed—and her bickering with the pompous Alderman Higgs. As the afternoon wanes, the family disperses for a brief, supervised hike, leaving Mrs. Boynton alone in her tent. Offstage, a hypodermic syringe is discovered nearby, and her body is found lifeless, her death initially ruled a heart failure but soon suspected as murder due to the injection site's freshness and the lethal dose of digitalin.

Three hours later, back at the camp, shock ripples through the group as Dr. Gerard confirms the poisoning, transforming tentative suspicions into outright accusations. The stepchildren, already primed by Mrs. Boynton's planted clues—a whispered confession from Ginevra about "killing" her stepmother, Raymond's earlier outburst that "one of us has got to kill her," and Lennox's vague admissions of desperation—incriminate themselves in fragmented dialogues, their shadows lingering under the stage lights as symbols of enduring subjugation. Jefferson Cope and Colonel Carbery summon local authorities, including the bumbling Alderman Higgs in his Jerusalem capacity, while Sarah pieces together inconsistencies, noting the family's unnatural relief turning to guilt. Red herrings abound: the missing syringe, Nadine's access to drugs via her lover, and Lady Westholme's domineering presence, now purely comedic as she frets over formalities. The act builds to a fever pitch of paranoia, with the camp's isolation mirroring the family's internal prison, and no clear detective emerging to unravel the threads.

The following morning and afternoon in Petra bring the climax and revelation, as investigations stall amid the exotic backdrop of Nabatean tombs. Suspicions cycle wildly among the Boyntons, with each member's motive—inheritance, escape, revenge—laid bare in heated exchanges, while outsiders like Miss Pryce offer timid observations and the dragoman provides logistical alibis. Sarah, through an opportune conversation with Dr. Gerard, uncovers the truth: Mrs. Boynton, the ultimate manipulator, orchestrated her own suicide with the digitalin, deliberately scattering clues to foster eternal distrust among her stepchildren, ensuring her spectral dominance persists. This posthumous cruelty shatters the family anew, with Raymond and Sarah's romance tentatively salvaged, Nadine resolving to leave Lennox, and Ginevra glimpsing freedom. The play closes abruptly on a jarring comic note between Lady Westholme and Alderman Higgs, underscoring the blend of psychological horror and levity, as the survivors depart Petra forever changed by the matriarch's final, insidious appointment.