The Actor and the Alibi

ON THE OTHER END OF THE LINE

About the story.

A theatrical manager moves through backstage corridors carrying worries about performers, money, and the evening’s work. The theater is a place where people are constantly presenting themselves as someone else, while insisting they know exactly where everybody has been.

A crime brings Father Brown into those competing accounts. The familiar distinction between a performance and an ordinary action becomes much less comfortable when somebody’s explanation depends on it.