Atomic weapons are an unfathomable force in combat. However, Agatha Christie proves they are just as destructive in normal day life. Pieter Toerien Productions brings Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee to life on Montecastino Theatre’s stage. Through it, audiences are invited to fall in love with books, theatre and storytelling just a little bit more.
Her name probably sounds familiar to you and that’s because she is one of the world’s best-selling novelists of all time. The Late Dame Agatha Christie is best known for her 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections and writing the world’s longest-running play. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in translation.
Black Coffee was Agatha Christie’s first play script. Originally performed in 1930 and later adapted into a novel by Charles Osborne in 1998, it still takes to the stage some 95 years later.
According to Agatha Christie, Black Coffee stays true to the saying that “the truth is never horrible, only interesting.”
Her website summarises the plot as follows:
“Sir Claud Amory’s revolutionary new formula for a powerful explosive is stolen. Locking his house guests in the library, Sir Claud switches off the lights to allow the thief to replace the formula, no questions asked. When the lights come on, he is dead, and Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings have to unravel a tangle of family feuds, old flames and suspicious foreigners to find the killer and prevent a global catastrophe.”
The play develops into a humorous investigation that baffles audiences. Just when you think you understand how Detective Poirot’s mind works, he shocks you into disbelief. And, just when you think you know who the killer is, a plot twist leaves you reeling with confusion.
There was no need for fancy set changes or different backdrops throughout Pieter Toerien’s staging of Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee. The story unfolds in just one and a half rooms: The living room of the Amory Mansion and the connected study of Sir Claud Amory.
The cast dazzled on stage – with Alan Committie playing Monsieur Hercule Poirot brilliantly. It is directed by Alan Swerdlow. Committie’s presence on stage brought the audience into the story and had us laughing, frowning and gasping along to his dialogues.
On stage in Johannesburg until Sunday, 8 June 2025, Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee is waiting to pick at your mind and crawl into your heart. Book through Webtickets now.
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