Agatha Christie fans from far and wide will be gripped and entertained at Bijou Theatre Production’s Black Coffee at the Palace Theatre in Paignton from 11th June to 31st July 2025.
A stolen top-secret document. A house full of suspicious guests. A deadly turn in the dark… When an accomplished physicist tries to recover what was taken, he never expects murder to be the price. As family feuds ignite, old flames resurface, and a mysterious chest of poisons is uncovered, the brilliant Hercule Poirot must unravel the truth before the killer strikes again.
Black coffee was Agatha Christie’s first play, launching her second career as a playwright, and the only play she wrote featuring Hercule Poirot. In Julius Green’s book, Agatha Christie: A Life in Theatre, Agatha he describes her as ‘the most successful female playwright of all time…Agatha Christie started life a fan of the theatre, went on to become an incredibly successful name in theatre, and has left a legacy recognised and appreciated in the theatre world around the globe to this day.’
2025 is a double celebration for Bijou Theatre Productions as they mark their 70th anniversary as a theatre company and their 20th Agatha Christie season. Bijou’s long association with the ‘Queen of Crime’ started in 1984 with Towards Zero and has included staging many of Christie’s plays including A Murder is Announced, The Hollow, Unexpected Guest and Murder on the Nile.
Hercule Poirot is played by James Mackenzie-Thorpe: ‘This is my first time playing Poirot and it’s the only play that Agatha Christie wrote that features him. It’s an amazing opportunity to take on an iconic role and to follow in the footsteps of Ustinov, Suchet and Branagh and to do as they have done and give my own interpretation of the world’s most famous fictional Belgian!’
Sarah Caplan is delighted to be back directing this year having Co-directed last year’s production of the Miss Marple thriller ‘A Murder is Announced’ and she couldn’t be more thrilled to get her hands on Poirot’s ‘Little Grey Cells’!: ‘It’s an absolute honour to be asked to direct the Agatha Christie Summer Season of ‘Black Coffee’, a play that is very dear to me having played both Lucia and Barbara Amory in previous productions. It is an intriguing opportunity to be on the other side of the footlights and get to play with Christie’s twisting, turning plot and household of shady characters. I have spent time focusing on capturing Poirot’s approach to crime-solving rather than simply his physical appearance, with emphasis on his intellectual prowess and emotional intelligence’.
This year’s production of Black Coffee starts on Wednesday 11th June and thereafter runs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings until 31st July with curtain up at 19:30.
This amateur production of ‘Black Coffee’ is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/
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