In a bare room, an elderly woman sleeps in an armchair, sprained ankle on a footstool. It might be a snapshot of lonely, modern Britain. But the woman is Jane Marple and, as the lights go up, Agatha Christie’s 1962 village murder mystery bursts into high-octane action and never stops.

Daring choices have been made by playwright Rachel Wagstaff and director Melly Still in this high-concept adaptation that at times looks like a Miss Marple reboot.

Marina Gregg, a Hollywood starlet, has moved to St Mary Mead and a villager is poisoned at her cocktail party. As Miss Marple (Susie Blake) and Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock (Simon Shepherd) set to their sleuthing, every film trope is employed on stage: the cast replay the moment of poisoning and repeat other pivotal scenes in slow motion, fast forward or action replay. The past is enacted in snapshots complete with blunt-edged bursts of thrillerish music. Richard Kent’s set features a transparent back wall that shows yet more drama in silhouette or film sequences.

The effect is of unceasing churn with actors who appear like automata as they come to life then flop or freeze to stillness. Early on, a character asks: “Do you know whodunnit yet?” It becomes hard to tell whether the production is paying homage to screen murder mysteries or sending them up in a stylised pastiche.

The end shows a crime emanating from secret heartache, motherhood and loss, but has none of the emotional currency it needs (and which the 1980 Elizabeth Taylor/Angela Lansbury film contains). This is because the actors seem to have been choreographed as cogs in the dramatic machinery.

There is an intelligent exploration of Christie’s women, from unconventional mothers to motherless daughters, alongside Jane Marple’s own vulnerabilities as an ageing “spinster”. A fast-changing Britain is also captured in the villagers’ snobbish and jingoistic responses to the new housing estate, their reactions to the Italian waiter from Hollywood and the sight of women in trousers. Sadly, these themes are drowned out by the constant motion. It is a frustrating production as a result, though not without boldness of vision and occasional dazzle.

• At Salisbury Playhouse until 9 March. Then touring.

• This article was amended on 6 March 2019 because an earlier version misnamed the fictional village of St Mary Mead, as Mary St Mead. This has been corrected.