He discovers that the formula has been stolen from his safe and rings Hercule Poirot asking for his help. Scientist Sir Claud Amory is developing a formula for a new type of atomic explosive.

Plot Cover of the first UK edition of the Charles Osborne novelisation Unlike most other Christie plays, Black Coffee did not transfer to the New York stage. John Boxer played Captain Hastings and Richard Fisher Inspector Japp. Wolfit would become renowned in England as an actor-manager, best remembered for his vivid interpretations of Shakespearean roles and other big-scale classical parts. (Sullivan stood six feet, two inches in height.) Also in the premiere cast was (Sir) Donald Wolfit, playing Dr. She approved of his portrayal despite the fact that physically he was far too tall for the dapper little Belgian detective. Sullivan who became a good friend of the author. Poirot was played initially by the well-known character actor Francis L. It then went to the Little Theatre on 11 May, finally closing there on 13 June 1931.

On 9 April 1931 it re-opened at the St Martin's Theatre (later to be the second home of Christie's most enduring stage work The Mousetrap), where it ran until 1 May before transferring to the Wimbledon Theatre on 4 May. The production ran in that theatre only until 20 December. However, no record exists of such a staging and she was undoubtedly confusing it with the true opening production at the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage (now London's Central School of Speech and Drama) on 8 December 1930. Nonetheless, her literary agents had advised her to forget the play entirely and she was willing to do so until a friend connected with the theatre suggested that it might be worth producing.Ĭhristie's autobiography claimed that the debut performance of Black Coffee took place at the Everyman Theatre in Hampstead. full of cliches, it was, I think, not at all bad'. She mentions Black Coffee in her 1977 life story, Autobiography, describing it as 'a conventional spy thriller. According to the foreword to the current HarperCollins edition of Black Coffee in its novelised form, she finished writing the play in late 1929. Quin and her novel The Secret Adversary as The Passing of Mr. The novelisation was undertaken by the Australian-born writer and classical music critic Charles Osborne, with the endorsement of the Christie estate.Īgatha Christie began writing Black Coffee in 1929, feeling disappointed with the portrayal of Hercule Poirot in the previous year's play Alibi, and being equally dissatisfied with the motion-picture adaptations of her short story The Coming of Mr. In 1998, 22 years after Christie's death, it was re-published in the United Kingdom and the United States in the form of a novel. The successful play was adapted as a film in 1931. The scientist calls Hercule Poirot to investigate, but is murdered just as Poirot arrives with Hastings and Inspector Japp. In the play, a scientist discovers that someone in his household has stolen the formula for an explosive.

The first piece that Christie wrote for the stage, it launched a successful second career for her as a playwright. Play by the British crime-fiction author Agatha Christieīlack Coffee is a play by the British crime-fiction author Agatha Christie (1890–1976) which was produced initially in 1930.

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