Adobe cast, staging shines in ‘Black Coffee’
Agatha Christie is master of the whodunit, writing 66 novels, 14 short story collections, and a smattering of plays, such as “The Mousetrap.”
Her first play, “Black Coffee” in 1930, revolves around the detective Hercule Poirot, her most famous character (he appears in 33 of her novels). Great actors such as Charles Laughton, Orson Welles, Sir Peter Ustinov, Kenneth Branagh and many others have played the role over the years.
“Black Coffee” is now playing at the Adobe Theater in a solid production directed by Mario Cabrera and featuring Dehron Foster as Poirot.
Christie gathers an eclectic group of characters in the sitting room of Sir Claude Amory, an irascible physicist who has discovered the formula for the atomic bomb. Naturally such a formula would command a high price from foreign governments, and before long Sir Claude is murdered and the secret formula stolen (his murder happens very early in the play, so I am not giving away much). Poirot arrives to unravel the complicated plot and arrest the schemer.
Foster is excellent as the clever sleuth with the funny Belgian accent and waxed moustache, ingratiating himself on the characters and on the audience as well. The fun of an Agatha Christie play is of course watching him figure out who committed the murder and trying to figure it out yourself.
The cast is uniformly excellent, with an especially fine performance coming from Terri Ross as Claude’s bizarre sister Miss Caroline. After her brother’s untimely death she enters wearing an absurd outfit and entirely too much makeup. No one seems very disturbed by the old man’s death, although when confronted by the unseemliness of her conduct she lamely pretends to grieve.
Sarah Runyan is quite good as the eccentric young niece Barbara, who makes no attempt to disguise the delight she feels over her uncle’s death. Her unaccountable infatuation with Hastings, Poirot’s usually trusty assistant (trusty when not infatuated himself) makes for much comedy.
While a whodunit murder mystery, Christie lightens things up considerably with character-driven comedy. Other amusing eccentrics include Sir Claude’s stuttering assistant Raynor, nicely played by Eric Werner, and Dr. Carelli, an Italian with a thick accent and funny wig, amusingly portrayed by Rick Walter.
Naturally there is a love interest as well, with Fawn Hanson as the troubled young woman Lucia and Nick Fleming as her besotted husband Richard (Sir Claude’s improvident son). The romantic Poirot takes much delight mending their distressed relationship.
In short, Christie’s play has a little bit of everything.
Nobody is credited with set design in the program, but the Victorian sitting room on the Adobe stage is a plausible facsimile of a manor house library. Carolyn Hogan’s period costumes and wigs are exquisite.
Christie’s plays are well crafted but tend to verbosity. There is a great deal of chatter and exposition before the plot takes off. As a whodunit most of the exposition is necessary, but the production is almost three hours long with two intermissions.
“Black Coffee” is playing through May
6 at Adobe Theater, 9813 Fourth NW. Visit adobetheater.org or 8989222 for reservations.