AGATHA Christie wrote Black Coffee as a stage play which was less than enthusiastically received when first performed in 1930. It was later turned into two films, one in French, and eventually resurrected as a novel.

The plot features Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, played for laughs by Jason Durr in English so heavily-accented as to be unintelligible; he’s too tall to take such little steps, and yet he is appealing in the role.

It’s not as dry as some Christie plays can be, the over-the-top characters and witty dialogue make it quite diverting, as well as the red herrings and plot twists for which Christie is famous.

Poirot and his friend Arthur Hastings pay a visit to a famous scientist, but discover that he has been murdered and a formula on which he was working has been stolen. Which of those present in the house is the murderer?

Permatanned Gary Mavers has fun as the highly suspicious Dr Carelli, and Felicity Houlbrooke takes the ingénue role of the victim’s niece, Barbara, running rings round Robin McCallum’s jolly decent Captain Hastings. Ben Nealon and Georgina Leonidas as the son and daughter-in-law are the first main suspects, so you know it’s not them. Possibly flamboyantly dotty Aunt Caroline (Deborah Grant), who’s put up with the victim’s bad temper the longest? Or fawning secretary Raynor (Oliver Mellor) who knows what the formula contains? Or could it be the butler who did it? He brought the coffee, after all…

  • Runs until Saturday September 27 2014
  • Box Office 01325-486555

Sue Heath