Agatha Christie’s rarely staged mystery Black Coffee will be performed in Prague on May 5 and 7 at Rock Café (Národní 116), and on May 17 at Divadlo D21 (Záhřebská 468).

All shows start at 20:00. Tickets are available here

The only play Christie wrote exclusively for the stage featuring Hercule Poirot, Black Coffee plunges audiences into a suspense-filled country estate, where manners are polished and motives are murky.

The story begins when a revolutionary scientific formula is stolen, and its creator, Sir Claude Amory, is found dead just before Poirot arrives. The detective must unravel the truth before the formula falls into the wrong hands.

Following the success of Murder on the Orient Express, The Mad and Merry Men theatre troupe brings this rarely performed gem back to life. Actor and producer Gordon L. Schmitz, reprising his role as Poirot, says the play reveals an earlier, less refined version of the detective. “Christie hadn’t yet pinned down all his characteristics,” Schmitz explains. “In one scene, he’s meant to use jiu-jitsu—which is wildly un-Poirot. We came up with a more elegant solution.”

Written in the late 1920s and first staged in 1930, Black Coffee even touches on atomic science long before the world knew the name Oppenheimer. “Christie envisioned the concept of an atom bomb before it existed,” Schmitz notes.

Actress Antoanella Ungureanu, who plays the elderly Caroline Amory, says the drama plays out like an emotional storm. “This secretive family is swept into events they can’t control,” she says. “They try to keep their composure—but their true feelings come out whether they like it or not.”

Playwright Zeke Rouse describes Black Coffee as “a proper adventure, full of secrets, scandal, and a suspicious amount of caffeine. Each performance feels like a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.”

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Well, you have to be lucky to visit this theatre and see the play performed in English. However, it is my most favorite cultural gem of Czech Republic – Divadlo Jary Cimrmana (Theatre of Jara Cimrman) and I cannot keep this a secret from you.

Two years ago a group of English-speaking theatre enthusiasts took it upon themselves to translate the genius of the most famous Czech playwright, sportsman, engineer, composer, detective, inventor, and self-taught gynecologist Jara Cimrman into English and formed the Cimrman English Theatre.

If you ask any Czech about Jara Cimrman, you will hear a lot of stories and you would be assured that he is a national hero. If you ask any foreigner, you will probably realize that nobody outside of this country has ever heard of Jara Cimrman.

Maybe this is because of the fact that he is only a fictional person (nevertheless, he was nominated to the post of Czech president). Seeing the play in this theater (written by Jara Cimrman) will illustrate the typically Czech sense of humor.

So, if you are reading this during your visit to Prague, it is probably too late to get the tickets. But if you are (unlike me) planning your visit ahead of time, buy the tickets online and do not miss this unique experience!

The tickets for the performance on 7th and 25th of October are still available…

Author: Michal Lebl. You can find the original article here

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