By BRUCE DENNILL
Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee / Directed by Alan Swerdlow / Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre, Fourways, Johannesburg
The name ‘Agatha Christie’ in front of the title of anything usually means that someone in the story to follow will not make it to the end of the piece, and that proves to be the case here – but only after an initial mystery is set up, confounding expectations to some degree. Sir Claud Amory (Peter Terry) suspects his houseful of family, guests and staff of stealing a piece of paper on which some valuable calculations have been written – calculations that could give their new owner the power to develop terrifying weaponry – and gets his loyal butler (Mike Huff) to lock everyone in. The guests are then informed that a certain Hercule Poirot (Alan Committie) is en route, and that he will doubtlessly identify the culprit.
The high-stakes nature of the resulting mood is tempered by the humour that arrives with Poirot and his ultra-earnest assistant, Captain Arthur Hastings (Ashley Dowds) and which is made delightfully complex by the dense, intelligent dialogue that every member of a well-drilled cast delivers with restraint or relish, as each situation requires.
All the action is set in one large and beautifully designed room, with production designer Sarah Roberts creating a space commodious enough for the cast to move around and interact in but also packed with detail that suggests it might ultimately become part of Poirot’s inevitable solving of the mystery (which does involve a murder, just as inevitably).
Committie, complete with waxed, curled moustache and tonsure that only the character’s superior intellect can draw morbidly fascinated attention from, settles deeply into Christie’s most beloved creation, keeping his stand-up comedian performance tics well in check to portray Poirot as a charming, eccentric and perceptive detective, and one with, perhaps, a surprising amount of steel to go with his investigative discipline. There is one fun moment when Committie the actor is given a brief window to stamp his comic persona on the role, and it’s well-judged and a facet that helps this Poirot stand apart from the many others on stages around the world whenever Christie’s plays featuring the character are performed.
Dianne Simpson, in the relatively small role of Barbara Amory (Sir Claud’s niece) is superb, making Barbara a sharply observed hoot of a character, largely immune to both the snooty protocols of the house and the era and the tension created by the inquiry going on around her. Brett Krüger, in both his second professional theatrical performance and his second Agatha Christie (he starred, along with much of the rest of this cast, in Witness For The Prosecution, also directed by Alan Swerdlow) is authoritative beyond his years. Michael Richard (maintaining a thick Italian accent even during an amusing tête-à-tête with Committie, himself laying on Poirot’s equally pronounced French/Belgian intonation), Peter Terry (in two very different roles) and Ashley Dowds all create highlights in supporting roles and Anne Williams’ return the stage as Caroline Amory is welcome and entertaining. Jackie Lulu as Lucia Amory and Schoeman Smit as Edward Raynor round out a first-rate collective.
Swerdlow’s signature attention to detail and depth of knowledge regarding his source material is reflected in the look and feel of the production as well as the slickness of the characters’ interactions, all of which makes a wordy and multifaceted script and plot engrossing and easy to follow throughout.
This is enduring material given fresh life, that should appeal to long-time Christie fans as well as theatregoers who haven’t a clue about the author’s legacy but who know well-paced, cleverly constructed intrigue when they see it.
