Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee: Grounds for Coffee ★★★

By The Recs RDC - Randall David Cook 1 week ago

Be Careful What You Drink in ‘Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee: Grounds for Murder’

Agatha Christie wrote her first play after being rather dissatisfied with Alibi, an adaptation by Michael Morton of one of her most famous novels, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Morton changed characters and dropped subplots Christie thought important, but perhaps what bothered her most was that Morton referred to Hercule Poirot as French, not Belgian. 

L’impertinence! 

That first play has had several titles, but it’s best known today as Black Coffee, and it’s now being presented by Be Bold! Productions at The Players Theatre as Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee: Grounds for Murder.

 Christie’s first foray into stage writing is a solid one, but it has many classic first-play problems: overly long spiels of exposition, some stilted dialogue, occasional awkwardness in characters’ entrances and exits, and too many characters who aren’t suspects. It’s the only original play Christie wrote that included beloved detective Hercule Poirot, and to ensure that justice would be served, she also included Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp. In this case, three officials are most definitely a crowd.

Images by Yuko Kudo

The play, set in 1930s England, begins after dinner in the library of Sir Claud Amory (Riley Fee), a scientist whose formula for a new kind of dangerous explosive has gone missing from his safe. Determined to expose the thief, Sir Amory locks all his household guests in his library and announces that he has called for help, but also offers a deal. In a minute’s time, the lights will go off, and if the envelope containing the missing papers is put on the table, no questions will be asked. If not, the thief will be pursued and prosecuted.

The lights go off as planned and, upon their return, the envelope is back on the table. But someone in the room has also been murdered.

Enter Hercule Poirot (Eric Fletcher, jolly), who arrives planning to track down a thief, but quickly pivots to uncovering a murderer. Suspects abound:  Amory’s sister Caroline (Patricia M. Lawrence), his niece Barbara (Lexie Showalter), his son Richard (Jack Wooton), Richard’s Italian wife Lucia (Andrea Woodbridge), his secretary Edward Raynor (Will Ernest Adams), and Lucia’s old friend Dr. Carelli (Gabe DeRose), who had arrived unexpectedly and isn’t much liked.

In classic locked-room fashion, Poirot questions each of them one by one with the help of the well-meaning but somewhat hapless Captain Hastings (Andrew Accardi), who often pushes clues forward unwittingly as Inspector Japp (Brenda Bell) maintains order. Everyone in the house had the opportunity to murder the victim in one way or another, and the clues — a medicine kit left over from the war, the sound of silk ripping, a threatening letter, and a duplicate key — are an intriguing collection to work through mentally. As expected, Poirot succeeds in ferreting out the guilty from the innocent.

Unlike the great Belgian detective, this production doesn’t always operate with the same precision. Director Shino Frances does a fine job managing the large cast, but the overall tone often feels indecisive, and the acting choices range from over-the-top, such as Fee channeling Truman Capote in Murder by Death, to smartly stolid, as seen in the work of Wooton and Sue-Ellen Mandell, as the able housekeeper, Mrs. Treadwell.

It’s when the play embraces the fun of its old-fashioned murder-mystery roots that it flourishes. If everyone were to commit to leaning in more deeply to their character types — think of Angela Lansbury in Death on the Nile, Nicholas Clay in Evil Under the Sun, or Ingrid Bergman in Murder on the Orient Express — other weaknesses, including the sometimes rickety script, could be more easily overlooked. 

Nonetheless, the overall production is a wonderfully cozy affair. The Players Theatre is the perfect venue for this type of show, and within it set designer Elizabeth Chaney has created a sensational library for the suspects to cavort around. And, as is the way with Christie’s works, it’s cathartic to see the wrongdoer caught and put away.

Christie’s skills as a playwright improved significantly over time, ultimately leading to Witness for the Prosecution and The Mousetrap, the world’s longest-running play. But even one of the world’s best-selling authors has to start somewhere, and this charming production of Black Coffee allows us to see the promising beginnings of eventual greatness. 

A cozy, clue-filled evening that is more comfort than crackle, but satisfying all the same.  

★★★ 3 stars

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