About the Play:

Black Coffee is an intricately crafted full-length mystery by Agatha Christie. In a classic "closed room" setting at a quintessential English country estate, someone has killed an eccentric physicist and stolen his formula for an astonishing new weapon. In true Agatha Christie fashion, the celebrated Belgian detective Hercule Poirot once again puts his "little grey cells" to the test as he solves a murder mystery in Black Coffee.

Black Coffee is the first play ever written by Agatha Christie. Later turned into the novel, we are introduced to her most popular character, the unparalleled Hercule Poirot, who went on to become the most famous detective of all time and the only fictional character ever to receive a full-page obituary in The New York Times. The story concerns a famous physicist named Sir Claude Amory who has come up with a workable formula for one of the most deadly weapons known to man: the atomic bomb (Black Coffee was written in 1930!). In the first act, Lucia, wife of Sir Claude's son Richard, Dr. Carelli and Barbara are all having after dinner coffee when Sir Claude announces that the new explosive formula has been stolen from his safe. Everyone who is present is a suspect, and Hercule Poirot and his friend Captain Arthur Hastings are summoned to solve the case. Sir Claude offers the thief the chance to return the formula and orders the lights to be turned out. But when the lights are switched on again as Poirot enters, Sir Claude is found dead, poisoned in his coffee, naturally. Not only must Poirot must deduce which of Sir Claude's family or house guests is the killer, he must retrieve the stolen formula before it falls into the hands of some of the most infamous spies on the planet. Poirot does so after many wonderful twists and turns in an Agatha Christie classic that weaves scientific discoveries, international espionage, and unimaginable murder together to give the audience a night of unravelling the knots of danger and suspense.

Although the famous Belgian detective has solved murders in 33 novels and 54 short stories, Black Coffee is the only play written by Agatha Christie in which Hercule Poirot appears. This classic mystery premiered in 1930 at the Embassy Theatre in London. It re-opened in 1931 at the St Martin's Theatre, where it ran for many months in London before transferring to the Wimbledon Theatre. While this large cast play is rarely performed professionally, it has become a popular choice for school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 10 male

What people say:

"Black Coffee serves blend of comedy and suspense." — Winnipeg Free Press

"The 'who-dunnit' mystery/drama was everything a Christie play should be: large cast, recognisable characters, well-timed entrances and exits, a death, and lots of conspiracy." — Stage Whispers

About the Playwright:

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and, in many languages, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. In a writing career that spanned more than half a century, Agatha Christie wrote 66 crime novels, 150 short story collections, over 20 plays, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott. Her work includes Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and the genre-defining And Then There Were None. In addition several of her original works were adapted for the stage by third parties.