The production opens at the Theatre Royal, Windsor on January 7th 2014 and tours the UK until July 2014.
Robert Powell, who recently starred in the West End production of Singin' in the Rain, has received multiple awards for his work in television, including the BAFTA for Best Actor for playing the title role in Franco Zefferelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. He played Mark Williams in the BBC’s Holby City for six years and David Briggs in the BBC’s The Detectives opposite Jasper Carrott. On film Powell played Richard Hannay in the 1978 film version of The Thirty Nine Steps as well as roles in Tommy, Harlequin, The Jigsaw Man and Jane Austen in Manhattan.
A quintessential English country estate is thrown into chaos following the murder of eccentric inventor Sir Claud Amory, and the theft of his new earth shattering formula. Arriving at the estate just moments too late, one man immediately senses a potent brew of despair, treachery, and deception amid the estate's occupants. That man is Hercule Poirot.
From the pen of the great Dame Christie – (who, having sold over 2 billion books worldwide is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare) - Poirot debuted in Christie’s 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, making his first - and only - stage outing in the mistress of murder’s debut play, Black Coffee.
The Belgian investigator went on to become one of world’s most cherished and long-lived fictional characters, appearing in 33 novels, one play and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975. To this day he remains the only fictitious character to receive a front-page obituary in the New York Times.
His legend has proved ripe for adaptation and Poirot has been portrayed in comics, on radio and on screen for films and television, by actors such as Albert Finney, Sir Peter Ustinov, Sir Ian Holm, Alfred Molina and David Suchet who, of course, played the eponymous hero in the ITV series since 1989, through the entire catalogue of books and dozens of short stories. He recently bid audiences an emotional farewell as Series 13 of the classic series concluded with his demise in Christie’s dramatic farewell, Curtain.
Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson and chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd, said: “I am so pleased that Robert Powell has agreed to play Poirot in the Agatha Christie Theatre Co's production of Black Coffee starting in January. He will be the latest in a long line of distinguished actors to play the role, and a real treat lies in store in 2014 for all those around the country who go to see the play.”
Intrigue and suspense form the back-bone of this classic spy-thriller which follows The Agatha Christie Theatre Company’s hugely successful; The Hollow, The Unexpected Guest, And Then There Were None, Spider’s Web, Witness for the Prosecution, Verdict, Murder on the Nile and Go Back For Murder.
Please visit www.kenwright.com for further information and tickets.
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