BLACK COFFEE AT THE WOLVERHAMPTON GRAND THEATRE
Theatre Run: Monday 3 - Saturday 8 February 2014
Performance Reviewed: Monday 3 February 2014 (Press Night)
Reviewed by Kyle Pedley
Black Coffee serves as a most welcome blending of the familiar with the fresh; the archetypal components of any Agatha Christie murder mystery of this ilk - the isolated country estate, an ensemble of questionable types amongst the well-to-do, more red herrings than you can twizzle a preened moustache at - are all present and accounted for, and yet in being the only stage work of Christie’s to feature her now seminal Belgian super sleuth Hercule Poirot, it feels a somewhat more distinct and special affair. Newcomer to the role yet established veteran of stage and screen Robert Powell channels David Suchet’s oft-imitated yet never bettered work in the role complimented with a charm and presence of his own, finding in both the character and play as a whole just enough bonhomie and bounce to keep the whole proceeding suitably entertaining and amusing without undermining the grizzly business of unravelling a typically obscure yet progressively accessible Christie plot of murder most foul.
