Set in the library of physicist Sir Claud Amory's country house, the play opens with the theft of his secret formula. Sir Claud (Steven Jones) calls in Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Harvey Wright) and suspicion immediately falls on the unwelcome Italian houseguest Dr Carelli (Annabelle Blackburn).
Arriving in the company of bumbling Arthur Hastings (Serena Winn-Darley), Poirot discovers that his investigation has taken on a new turn: Sir Claud has been murdered, poisoned by his black coffee. The search is now on for a murderer as well as a thief - but are they one and the same?
Enter the batty and deeply xenophobic Aunt Caroline (Alice Jackson), troubled lovers Richard and Lucia Amory (Edward Lodge and Angela Watson), surly house servants Tredwell (Nathan Chapman) and Raynor (Thomas Lister) and the mysterious Dr Carelli. Each is interviewed by the inimitable Poirot, aided by cockney Inspector Japp (Abi Watkinson), and the culprit dramatically unmasked.
‘The children gave a magnificent performance of a challenging play,' said Mr Glen. ‘In particular, Alice Jackson was every bit the eccentric grande dame, commanding attention with every imperious sweep of her hand, whilst Harvey Wright's deadpan Gallic delivery of the lugubrious Poirot was a masterpiece of comic timing.'
In the course of directing the play, Mr Glen employed a little detective work of his own to track down the whereabouts of the 2003 Terrington Hall cast of the same play.
‘To my immense pride, not only has every member of that cast gone on to further education, but four have made their way to Oxbridge - Polly Marsden (Poirot) is now studying PPE at Oxford, Alex Green (Dr Carelli) Theology at Oxford, Sophie Reed (Miss Caroline Amory) astrophysics at Cambridge, and Tristram Fane-Saunders (Inspector Japp) English at Cambridge.'
