2025 is a double celebration for Bijou Theatre Productions as they mark their 70th anniversary as a theatre company and their 20th Agatha Christie season. Bijou has gained a great reputation for its association with the ‘Queen of Crime’, Agatha Christie and its annual plays which in the past have included:
A Murder is Announced
The Hollow
Unexpected Guest
Murder on the Nile
This year’s production of Black Coffee starts on Wednesday 11th June and thereafter runs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings until 31st July.
Although perhaps better known as a crime novelist, Christie’s career as a playwright features in Julius Green’s book, Agatha Christie: A Life in Theatre, Agatha where he describes her as the ‘most successful female playwright of all time’. ’ Agatha Christie started life a fan of the theatre, went on to become an incredibly successful name in theatre, and has left a legacy recognised and appreciated in the theatre world around the globe to this day.
“One of the great joys in life was the local theatre. We were all lovers of the theatre in my family.” said Christie in her Autobiography.
Black Coffee, Christie’s first published play, was released in 1930. The play is noteworthy for two reasons: it was the first Christie play to land in London’s West End and it was her only full length stage play to feature her famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Black Coffee was the beginning of Christie’s long career as a playwright going on to write over 20 stage plays.
This amateur production of ‘Black Coffee’ is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/
Bijou Theatre Productions – on the Palace stage over the years
