By: Darryl Reilly
With his bald head, beaming mustached face, animated physicality, and delightfully accented booming voice, Eric Fletcher offers a glorious characterization of that immortal Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot in this mirthful and faithful revival of Agatha Christie’s 1930 first stage play Black Coffee.
Clad in a light gray suit, the imposing Mr. Fletcher gleefully swaggers through this classic English country house whodunit. Fletcher majestically sorts through red herrings and narrative machinations while supremely reaching the twisty and dramatic denouement. A highlight of Fletcher’s grand performance is his interrogation of a young female suspect; playful sensuality abounds. “What you need is a father confessor, talk to Papa Poirot!”
A knighted wealthy scientist has devised a formula for an atomic weapon; it has been stolen. In his drawing room he confronts an assembled party of a relatives, visitors, and servants. He has contacted the noted private detective Hercule Poirot to come and investigate the theft. However, when the lights go down if the formula is returned there will be no questions asked. The lights come up; the scientist is now dead from having drunk a poisoned cup of coffee. Poirot soon arrives to solve this murder.