REVIEW: Fiery Angel in Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ***

Paul Keating’s Hector MacQueen, left, Bob Barrett’s Monsieur Bouc and Michael Maloney’s Hercule Poirot in discussion in Lucy Bailey’s production of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express

FIERY Angel first brought a Lucy Bailey production of an Agatha Christie murder mystery to the Grand Opera House in November 2023.

And Then There Were None is now followed by Murder On The Orient Express, and then there will be three, at some point, when the already confirmed Death On The Nile goes on the road.

Production values are high once more, not least a cast of 15, complemented Mike Britton’s revolve set design, Oliver Fenwick’s light design (where dark is as important as light), Mic Pool’s ever-excellent sound design and in particular Ian William Galloway’s video design of train wheels in motion, plumes of steam, sparks on the tracks and a towering image of the gleaming, immaculate, noble Orient Express: the pedigree racehorse of engines.

Leah Hausman’s movement direction sets the tone. Bailey’s cast gathers, seen side on, at first moving in tandem like dancers, but then juddering and shuddering too, ill at ease, commotion in motion, rather than graceful.

Suddenly, a scream, whereupon they part like the Red Sea, and who should walk through but esteemed Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre actor Michael Maloney’s Hercule Poirot, face on, instantly establishing his separate path from the rest.

Interestingly, he appears to be the voice completing the scream, the first indication that this will be a more harrowing interpretation of Poirot, where he will raise his voice to anger and anguish in a manner not seen in the revered, unflustered performances of Poirot forebears such as Peter Ustinov and David Suchet. 

The little grey cells seem more frazzled than usual, still troubled by his handling of his previous case in Syria, shown in flashback here, and by his sense of foreboding of what hell is soon to be unleashed on Europe (to which he makes reference at the denouement of this 1934 case).

Nevertheless, Maloney’s Poirot remains immaculate in couture, his moustache trim (rather than the absurdist facial topiary favoured by Kenneth Branagh’s cinematic reinvention), his accent distinctly Belgian, rather than French, his manner and method meticulous.

One by one, American playwright Ken Ludwig’s witty stage adaptation of Christie’s novel – premiered in New Jersey in 2017 and now touring the UK for the first time – introduces everyone on board, staff and passengers alike.

Poirot is the guest of his Belgian friend in Istanbul, train company director Monsieur Bouc (Bob Barrett, accent prone to meander back to Blighty from the European mainland), a jolly soul who will play Watson to his Sherlock as they journey to London.

A journey that will be halted by an avalanche that stops the Orient Express in its track. Cue a murder, exit Samuel Ratchett (later to be revealed as a murderous gangster, Cassetti). But whodunit? The killer must still be on board, and Poirot has a train load of suspects to work through. Some of the acting is a tad suspect too, it must be said, nothing criminal, but sometimes guilty of over-acting, although deliberately so in the case of Christine Kavanagh’s thoroughly thespian  American actress Helen Hubbard.

Mila Carter, early in her professional career, impresses as Countess Elena; Debbie Chazen has fun as the waspish, grand Princess Dragmiroff; French actor Jean-Baptiste Fillon conducts himself well as French conductor Michel.

You will enjoy – almost as much as Monsieur Bouc does – the running joke of Poirot being assumed to be French by all and sundry, but maybe less so the more tortured interpretation of Poirot and the uneven performances around him, faced with the challenge of a tale of vengeance that swings from farcical comedy to “profound darkness”.

Bailey’s reading of Poirot explains Maloney’s potentially Marmite performance. “I don’t think you’re always meant to like him, at least not in the way Christie writes him,” she writes in her programme note. “There’s a sort of otherness to him in that he’s Belgian and very polite and very petite!

“He’s full of neuroses and is obsessed with order, cleanliness and personal presentation. He lives by all these rules but paradoxically he’s tremendously eccentric and bursting with energy, charm and enthusiasm.”  Maloney ticks boxes aplenty, but less so the charm here.

The other central character is the train itself, the Orient Express, which gives a five-star performance in Mike Britton’s design, revolving to reveal both interior and exterior, corridors and compartments: the star turn in fact.

Fiery Angel presents Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, Grand Opera House, York, keeping on track until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Meet the other Belgian in Murder On The Orient Express, Bob Barrett’s Monsieur Bouc. Next stop, Grand Opera House, York

Train of thought: Paul Keating’s Hector MacQueen, left, Bob Barrett’s Monsieur Bouc and Michael Maloney’s Hercule Poirot in discussion in Lucy Bailey’s production of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next week

REMEMBER And Then There Were None playing the Grand Opera House in November 2023? And now there is another Agatha Christie thriller on track for the York theatre, again directed by Lucy Bailey for Fiery Angel.

It will be full steam ahead for Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Murder On The Orient Express from next Tuesday, with Michael Maloney on board for a “deliciously thrilling ride” as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot.

In Winter 1934, an avalanche stops The Orient Express dead in its tracks. Cue a murder. A train full of suspects. An impossible case. Trapped in the snow with a killer still on-board, can the world’s most famous detective crack the case before the train reaches its final destination?

Bob Barrett takes the role of Poirot’s fellow Belgian and friend, Monsieur Bouc, director of La Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the Orient Express train company, in a tour well into its stride.

“We started rehearsals last August and our first performance was at The Lowry, in Salford, at the beginning of September, since when we’ve been touring with a very big set,” he says.

Bob Barrett, seated, right, in the Fiery Angel cast for Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None on his last visit to the Grand Opera House, York, in November 2023. Picture: Manuel Harlan

“We’ve gone from playing big theatres like The Mayflower in Southampton to the smallest so far, Richmond, with a capacity of 680, and there are parts of the set we can’t use in the smaller venues, but we have a revolve set design that can be used pretty much in its entirety everywhere, certainly in York, where it will be fantastic because it’s such a wide state – and that’s ideal because what you see is a train!”

Trucks were used in the rehearsal room to give a sense of the carriages. “Once we were off the book, we needed as much of the set as possible to work with, and the music too, which is a huge part of the show. I’ve never had that experience before where we had the music in the rehearsal room all the time, creating the energy and the humour in the production.”

Bob is enjoying bonhomie between Monsieur Bouc and Poirot in Bailey’s production. “They have a wonderful bond, and he is the yin to my yang,” he says. Monsieur Bouc is not the brightest, so it’s like Holmes & Watson or Morecambe and Wise, shall we say!

“Bouc has his back, and we see the plot unfold through Poirot’e eyes, with Bouc giving him his support – and advice, even though he’s invariably wrong!”

Bouc’s accent is most definitely Belgian, not French. “In some ways, it’s like the difference between the Canada and the United States. There’s a warmth to the accent and a slight humour too, with Belgians being jokes to the French.

Keeping track of events: Paul Keating’s Hector MacQueen), left, Bob Barrett’s Monsieur Bouc and Simon Cotton’s Samuel Ratchett in Murder On The Orient Express

“There’s a running joke throughout the play, where someone will say, ‘Is the Frenchman coming to see us?’, and I’ll have to say, ‘No, he’s Belgian’. But we have a Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Fillon, playing the conductor, Michael, so he’s got a really good French accent!”

Joined in the touring production by his wife, Rebecca Charles, in the role of the “weepy and delicate” Greta Ohlsson, Swedish personal assistant to the Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, Bob is returning to the Grand Opera House after appearing as Doctor Armstrong in Lucy Bailey’s account of And Then There Were None in November 2023.

“That was the first Agatha Christie production that Fiery Angel had done on such a big scale and it was a huge success,” he says. “They’ll be reuniting later this year for Death On The Nile with Lucy teaming up with same designer and production team too.

“Lucy has this wonderful imagination, she’s incredibly positive, and creates these unbelievable moments of energy in her directing, taking you on this rollercoaster, taking you to places that you wouldn’t expect to go to.

“She pushes you collectively, lifting the actors [metaphorically] above her shoulders and just running with it, so that you all feel part of the creative process, and that’s how she gets such energy into the performance.”

Director Lucy Bailey: “She has this wonderful imagination, she’s incredibly positive, and creates these unbelievable moments of energy in her directing,” says cast member Bob Barrett. Picture: Manuel Harlan

Assessing why Agatha Christie remains as popular as ever, whether on page, stage or screen, Bob posits: “Usually writers remain popular if what they’ve done has never been bettered.

“That’s why we go back to Shakespeare, Ibsen, Beckett, and Christie too. What they’ve done has been copied, but never bettered. In Christie’s case, how she creates suspense, intrigue and excitement. Dickens is the greatest English creator of characters but Agatha is not far behind. Poirot is such an iconic figure, even more so than Miss Marple.

“The other day, we found out that she’d written a version of Death On The Nile where she wrote out Poirot and had a vicar solving the crime, as she couldn’t face writing another Poirot story, but then changed her mind.”

Bob continues: “Agatha Christie wrote 75 books, Dickens 15, Jane Austen only six. So you have a lifetime of Christie reading ahead! I always say that she’s very accurate in what she writes, and if you’re that successful, you have to have an understanding of human nature, taking people out of their comfort zone and seeing what happens to them, thinking, ‘how would I behave in that situation?’.”

Fiery Angel presents Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, Grand Opera House, York, March 25 to 29, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

Did you know?

BOB Barrett is best known for his BBC television role as Sacha Levy in Holby City since 2010, with further screen credits in EastEnders, The Bill, Shakespeare In Love, Wonderful You, Casualty and Father Brown.

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond amid murder mysteries times two. Hutch’s List No. 37, from Gazette & Herald

Ed Gamble: No mention of hot dogs at the Grand Opera House, York, despite the show title and tour publicity photo. Picture: Matt Crockett

IT would not be a Gamble to the see the comedian of that surname, Peter Hook’s Joy Division and New Order excavations, a Miss Marple mystery or a new Rebus play, advises Charles Hutchinson.

Comedy gig of the week: Ed Gamble, Hot Diggity Dog, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

ED Gamble is promising “all your classicGamble ranting, raving and spluttering, but he’s doing fine mentally. Promise”. After all, he co-hosts the award-winning podcast Off Menuwith James Acaster, is a judge on Great British Menu and Taskmaster champion, hosts Taskmaster The Podcast and The Traitors: Uncloaked and has his own special, Blood Sugar, available on Amazon Prime. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Not Gonna Lie: Fool(ish) Improv conjure comedy from audience stories at The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal

Improv gig of the week: Fool(ish) Improv present Not Gonna Lie, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow, 8pm

THIS show by Paul Birch and co will take the truth to task by using real stories from the audience to improvise “unbelievable comedy”. Not so much Who’s Line Is It Anyway but more Who’s Lie Is It Anyway, Fool(ish) welcome you to a playful night of joy, nonsense and completely making things up.

“Come confess and unburden yourselves of some silly secrets, tales of the office and childhood memories and we will shape them into surreal sketches and sensational scenes,” say the Yorkshire improvisers trained by the best in Chicago Long-Form improv. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Peter Hook: Revisiting Joy Division and New Order with The Light at York Barbican. Picture: Mark McNulty

York rock gig of the week: Peter Hook & The Light, Substance World Tour, York Barbican, tomorrow, doors 7pm; start 8pm; curfew 11pm

PETER Hook & The Light compare and contrast his bands Joy Division and New Order’s Substance compilation albums, playing both Manchester groups’ vinyl versions in full, complemented by 12 tracks featured on CD editions.

Hook will be joined by David Potts, his regular companion from Monaco and Revenge, on guitar and vocals, new addition Martin Rebelski, from Doves, on keyboards, Paul Kehoe on drums, and Paul Duffy, from The Coral, deputising for Hooky’s son, Jack Bates, on bass. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Martin Stephenson: Back with The Daintees in Malton

Ryedale gig of the week: Martin Stephenson & The Daintees, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 13, 8pm

MARTIN Stephenson’s focus will be on You Belong To Blue, the February 2023 album that saw original Daintees’ members Gary Dunn, Anthony Dunn and Charlie Smith, plus a selection of special guests, joining up with the Durham-born singer-songwriter once again.

His Malton set will feature Daintees and Stephenson solo favourites stretching back to his 1986 debut Boat To Bolivia as he dips into country, folk, jazz, blues, skiffle and reggae. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Billy Mitchell and Bob Fox: In tandem at the Milton Rooms

Duo of the week: Billy Mitchell and Bob Fox, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 15, 7.30pm

THIS is a rare opportunity to see North Eastern masters of vocal harmony and musicians Billy Mitchell and Bob Fox perform once again as a duo after several years of individual work. Actor, singer and songwriter Mitchell founded Jack The Lad in the 1970s and was Lindisfarne’s the front man for eight years until their retirement in 2003.

He has undertaken two tours of The Lindisfarne Story and performs in The Pitmen Poets with Fox, Jez Lowe and Benny Graham, presenting songs and stories of Durham and Northumberland’s coal mining communities. Fox interprets traditional and modern songs, played the Songman in the National Theatre’s Warhorse and first toured with Mitchell in 2006, leading to their studio album of Tyne and Wear songs Back On City Road. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Gray O’Brien as Inspector John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Nobby Clark

York play of the week: Rebus: A Game Called Malice, York Theatre Royal, October 15 to 19, 7.30pm; 2pm, Wednesday, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday

SCOTTISH crime writer Ian Rankin’s much-loved detective, John Rebus, takes to the stage in a new storyco-written with Simon Reade. Gray O’Brien, from Coronation Street, Casualty and Peak Practice, plays Rebus in a cast also featuring Abigail Thaw and Billy Hartman.

When a splendid Edinburgh mansion dinner party concludes with a murder mystery game created by the hostess, suddenly a murder needs to be solved. However, guests have secrets of their own. Among them is Inspector John Rebus, but is he Is playing an alternative game, one to which only he knows the rules? Rankin will attend the October 18 post-show discussion with the cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

1812 Theatre Company’s poster for The Mirror Crack’d, a Miss Marple mystery, at Helmsley Arts Centre

Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d, Helmsley Arts Centre, October 16 to 19, 7.30pm

1812 Theatre Company presents Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1962 thriller, wherein Hollywood star Marina Gregg has moved into Gossington Hall and has been persuaded to host the village fête.  

When the harmless Heather Badcock, a St John’s Ambulance volunteer with not one enemy in the world, is poisoned by a drink meant for Marina, Chief Inspector Craddock quickly realises the wrong person has died. Fortunately, his aunt, Miss Marple, lives in the village, ever ready to unravel the truth behind the killing as seven suspects face investigation. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Strictly between us: Husband and wife Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara announce A Night To Remember tour for 2025

Show announcement of the week: Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara: A Night To Remember, York Barbican, June 1 2025

STRICTLY Come Dancing favourites Aljaž Škorjanec and Janette Manrara – married since 2017 – will be touring next year with A Night To Remember, featuring an ensemble of “some of the UK’s very best dancers and singers”.

 Aljaž, partnering Tasha Ghouri in the 2024 series, and It takes Two presenter Janette will “perform stunning routines to an eclectic array of music”, spanning the Great American songbook through to modern-day classics, backed by their own big band, fronted by boogie- woogie star Tom Seal. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/aljaz-and-janette-a-night-to-remember.

In Focus: Pickering Musical Society in Wonders Of The West End, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, October 10 to 13

Paula Paylor, left, and Danille Long in Pickering Musical Society’s Wonders Of The West End. Picture: Robert David Photography

CURTAIN up tomorrow, Pickering Musical Society is in full swing, putting the final touches to its highly anticipated autumn concert Wonders Of The West End.

This year’s production promises to be a spectacular event, featuring not only the society’s talented performers but also more than 40 dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance.

In a dazzling programme of classic and contemporary show tunes, selections include iconic hits from Gigi, Half A Sixpence, Oliver! and Waitress, to name but a few.

Colin Wragg in Wonders Of The West End. Picture: Robert David Photography

The cast and dancers have been working hard under the expert guidance of resident musical director Clive Wass, who will be conducting the orchestra each night.

“The combination of live music, powerful vocals, and stunning choreography promises an unforgettable night of theatre,” says director Luke Arnold. “The carefully curated programme offers something for everyone, whether you’re a fan of the golden age of musicals or the latest West End sensations.

“It would be remiss to reflect on the music without a special mention to the society’s rehearsal pianist, Carl Schofield, who has worked tirelessly with the cast over the past three months to help deliver a stunning performance.” 

Under the parasol: Alice Rose in Wonders Of The West End. Picture: Robert David Photography

This year’s concert marks the debut of regular principal actress Courtney Brown as assistant director under Luke’s stewardship.

“It has been a privilege working with Courtney,” he says. “I could not have wished for a better assistant. We have got on fantastically well from day one and our interest and taste in musical theatre is very similar, which has helped us create a unified production. I look forward to working with Courtney again and seeing her develop as a director.”

Pickering Musical Society presents Wonders Of The West End, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, October 10 to 13, 7.30pm nightly. Box office: 01751 474833 or online at Wonders of the West End (littleboxoffice.com).

Pickering Musical Society’s full company for Wonders Of The West End. Picture: Robert David Photography

REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Grand Opera House, York **** 

Lucy Bailey’s cast in And Then There Were None, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Manuel Harlan

A WELL-TOLD story doesn’t lose its power to capture the imagination. Agatha Christie’s work continues to be enjoyed decades later. Times change, our love of a good murder mystery does not. While the original venue for the play was bombed out during the Second World War, this York performance looked sold out and deservedly so.

And Then There Were None is the story of ten strangers, lured to an island by various deceits in order to reveal their past sins and receive their comeuppance. The opening scenes play out leisurely, perhaps too leisurely, as we are introduced to the locked-down guests. In lesser hands, these characters could easily come across as dated clichés, but the longer they live, the more depths we see.

Blessed with director Lucy Bailey at the helm and a top-flight cast, you are in for an enjoyable tense evening. Bailey has wisely not deconstructed Christie’s bomb-proof plot. The updates are mostly to bring depth and nuance. Modern tastes are thrown a bone with a slow-motion sequence here, a memory there.

Most of the deaths thankfully still take place off stage and the social order remains implacably fixed. The same-sex kiss between Lucy Tregear as George Rogers (updating the original male butler) and Jane Pinchbeck (Nicola May-Taylor) drew gasps in Cambridge but barely raise an eyebrow in York.

This is an ensemble piece and now mid-tour is operating at its peak. Once the thrilling machinery of murder is running, each comes to the fore. Movement director Ayse Tashkiran has cleverly arranged the characters’ comings and goings so that each is both inquisitor and “inquisited” upon.

Joseph Beatie as adventurer Philip Lombard keeps his head more than others, and his performance is commendably textured. Bob Barrett, once the rumpled doctor Sacha Levy in Holby City, is again a rumpled doctor. He clearly relishes his character’s dark night of the soul after the interval.

David Yelland is more debonair than ice as Judge Wargrave; suavely seeking to control proceedings as he once did in court; hiding his steel beneath an impeccably unruffled exterior. He could have made mincemeat of General MacKenzie, played with refreshing humanity and without bombast by Jeffery Kissoon.

The female members of the cast struck different notes; Treagar brings both resolve and enough drunken tenderness to her butler, while Katy Stephens is a formidably trenchant force as religious Emily Brent. The minor roles remain more one dimensional: callow, nervy or late with the milk as the plot demands.

Mike Britton’s set functions on a number of levels, a concave beach/sky in the background to represent Soldier Island, minimalist furniture (ageless but for the rug) and employing layers (both physical and psychological) seen through see through curtains. Bailey makes good, if sparing use of these layers to give us flashbacks into what ails the characters. The audience are the faces watching safely in the dark.

The suspense becomes irresistible. It’s hard to imagine a modern thriller without Christie’s contributions to the final twist and this one does not disappoint, pulling no punches.

This is a play where the characters watch each other closely. There is no let-up in the second act. Chris Davey’s lighting becomes more stark; up lit to really accentuate the faces and their claustrophobia. The red lighting for the scene reminiscent of A Midsummer’s Night Dream is effective, but the tableau itself is drawn in too broad strokes. The sound from Elizabeth Purnell is gentle, distant and understated – quietly drawing you in.

Without giving too much away, Andrew Lancel’s William Blore and Sophie Walter’s Vera Claythorne really stand out as the play rolls mercilessly on. Retired police inspector Blore is a very welcome guest, with many of the best lines, most of the laughs, and the biscuits. Lancel performs with assured timing and a depth and subtlety to his gradual breakdown.

You really don’t know what to believe about Vera Claythorne, thanks to Walter’s ability to convince you of anything she pleases. By turns modern and strong, damaged and vulnerable, Walter is arguably the most, perhaps only, sympathetic character. Or is that Christie playing tricks again? Guilty or not, her performance is unmissable.

Low numbers of tickets remain for the rest of this week’s run, but time is running out to work out whodunnit. Performances: tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Age guidance: 12 plus.

Andrew Lancel takes closer inspection of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None on Grand Opera House return

Andrew Lancel’s retired Inspector William Blore in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Manuel Harlan

ANDREW Lancel returns to the Grand Opera House stage in York next week in Lucy Bailey’s “genuinely terrifying” touring production of Agatha Christie’s most successful thriller And Then There Were None.

“I think I first played there [in October 2014] in The Small Hand, a Susan Hill play produced by Bill Kenwright, the first of 14 I did with Bill, who became a great friend,” says Andrew. “He meant so much to me.”

Andrew, best known for his villainous role as Frank Foster in Coronation Street, has since appeared at the Grand Opera House as a jury member in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men in December 2014 and manager Brian Epstein in Cilla The Musical in January 2018.

Now he is eight weeks into the first leg of a nationwide tour that will take a break after the York run before resuming from January to April 2024 and later travelling all over the world. “It’s been doing very well,” he says. “We’re rammed in every town, with standing ovations after every performance. Agatha Christie plays are going to last as long as Shakespeare will be done. She’s a genre in herself.”

Christie’s stage version of her best-selling 1939 crime novel revolves around ten strangers – eight guests, a butler and housekeeper – being lured to a solitary mansion off the coast of Devon. When a storm cuts them off from the mainland, the true reason for their presence on Soldier Island becomes horribly clear. One death at a time.

“People are getting bumped off. I don’t recommend anyone going near the stage!” jokes Andrew. “It’s a very timely production, with that thing of strangers going off to an island together. Look at TV shows, people going off to places and being eliminated one by one.

“In the hands of Lucy Bailey, who’s the reason I’m doing this show, she brings layers and textures of theatricality and darkness to this good old-fashioned thriller that starts very traditionally but then goes to another level. It’s shocking, but there’s also humour and the familiar characteristics of Agatha Christie.”

Christie has written more than one ending to And Then There Were None, but Andrew will not reveal the outcome in Bailey’s “reinvention for the 21st century”, except to say: “It’s very true to the novel, but what people are going to see at the Grand Opera House, as they are seeing up and down the country, is something unique, shocking. Our base line is the novel…but I ain’t gonna give anything away!”

Andrew continues: “Even if you know the play, you’ll see it in a new light in the way Lucy has done it. Its appeal spans the generations and it’s great to see some schools coming to it as their first piece of theatre. You hope they will pick up the Christie novels and come back to the theatre.”

Andrew plays William Blore, the retired police inspector summoned to Soldier Island, as it turns out, to answer belatedly to the crime of gaining promotion for himself by sending an innocent man named Landor to a penal colony, where he died.

“There are many sides to Blore. Everyone arrives on the island, lured there by an invitation where their curiosity and greed has got the better of them, but with a history of guilt in a crime for reasons that are revealed one by one,” he says.

“But Blore starts from a  very different place [of authority] and it’s fascinating to see him gradually breaking down. Learning everyone’s back story is so revealing.

“The 1939 setting means the shadow of war hangs over them too, and it’s incredible what a harbinger this play is, given what’s going on around us now.”

Andrew is “really enjoying” playing Blore in Bailey’s production. “It’s a very physical part and a very physical play, from fights to montages to almost dances,” he says.

The death toll keeps rising, “but it’s very much an ensemble piece, and without giving too much away, they are there throughout”. Another intriguing reason to dive into the murk of And Then There Were None but be aware that tickets are selling fast.

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday (21/11/2023) to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Sat ****

And then there were ten: standing, Mark Simmonds, left, Martyn Hunter, Mike Hickman, Andrew Roberts, Ian Giles, Rory Mulvihill and Andrew Isherwood; seated, Jeanette Hunter, left, Florence Poskitt and Jessica Murray, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s And Then There Were None

NOT to be mistaken for Lucy Bailey’s “21st century reinvention” of Agatha Christie’s best-selling crime novel, bound for the Grand Opera House in November, this is the first of three Pick Me Up productions, made in York, one per month, this autumn.

For the record, Pick Me Up producer Robert Readman secured the rights for staging And Then There Were None before the Fiery Angel, ROYO and Royal & Derngate co-production emerged over the horizon.

He had put in place an autumn season to show off all the talents at Pick Me Up’s disposal: experienced hands for the “straight play”, Christie’s posh house party thriller; blossoming youths in The Worst Witch in late-October, and musical comedy exponents in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein the following week.

Readman is a Christie aficionado – he could pick her as his specialist subject for Mastermind – but decided to spread the directorial workload for the season ahead, having already cast And Then There Were None before the handing the reins to cast member Andrew Isherwood to steer a film noir-style nail biter.

Law and order: Rory Mulvihill’s judge, Sir Lawrence Wargrave, left, and Andrew Isherwood’s Detective William Henry Blore

Readman will direct Young Frankenstein, preceded by Rosy Rowley overseeing The Worst Witch, but his creativity is at play in And Then There Were None too in his design for a Christie murder mystery set in 1939 with Europe on the brink of war.

Christie had talked of a bleak house that should feel like it had long been empty, furnished but stark and unwelcoming. Readman, with his collector’s eye for acquiring props, furniture, costumes and more besides at his Chicken Sheds warehouse in Bubwith, delivers the period look to the T. 

Furniture from a friend’s house move, tick. A redundant fireplace from another friend’s refurb, tick. The glass-framed doors from York Theatre Royal’s production of Private Lives, tick. The ten little soldier boy models, from Readman’s research, tick. An Ercol chair from the Readman family stock, tick.

He assembles them on an end-on/side on set that dominates the Theatre@41 black box, deliberately so to give Isherwood’s production an oppressive, claustrophobic air. There will be no escape from Soldier Island, off the Devon Coast, for the eight house guests, butler and his housekeeper wife, assembled there at the intriguing invitation of a certain Mr and Mrs U N Owen (whose identity and whereabouts shall indeed remain unknown).

Passing judgement: Jessica Murray’s Emily Brent vents her spleen at Florence Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None

One by one, they are introduced to the audience, first the husband-and-wife staff Rogers and Mrs Rogers, played by husband-and-wife Martyn and Jeanette Hunter, Martyn delightfully understated, Jeanette gone, spoiler alert, all too soon.

Not before Rogers follows instructions to play a sternly delivered recording that declares all of them to have a wicked past and a secret destined to seal their fate, each being marked for murder.

As the weather turns thunderous, cutting the island rock off from the mainland, let the bloodbath begin, the toy soldiers disappearing one by one with each murder, in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme on display above the mantelpiece.

Andrew Roberts has a cameo, West Country accent and all as Fred Narracott, delivering the guests to the island, before re-emerging as spiffing, fast-living, flippant Anthony Marston. Florence Poskitt’s outwardly level-headed but on-edge Vera Claythorne is welcoming guests on the Owens’ behalf; Mike Hickman’s devil-may-care Captain Philip Lombard likes to be seen keeping spirits up and his spirit intake up even higher.

What the butler saw or did he? Martyn Hunter’s Rogers and Jeanette Hunter’s Mrs Rogers in And Then There Were None

Andrew Isherwood soon sheds the dodgy accent of his cover as a wealthy South African, Davis, to be revealed as retired Detective William Henry Blore.

Ian Giles’s old boy, General MacKenzie, appears to be losing his marbles; Jessica Murray’s disapproving religious zealot Emily Brent knits feverishly, and Mark Simmonds’ Dr Armstrong is as earnest as brown bread.

Rory Mulvihill’s Sir Lawrence Wargrave is wont to dominate, a judge by profession, with a  permanent black-cap countenance and a voice that commands the stage and those around him alike.

Isherwood’s direction skilfully steers a path through dark humour, heightened tensions and chilling revelations, capturing Christie’s scathing dismissal of so many restrictive institutions, and his cast applies both light and increasing shade. 

Ian Giles’s General MacKenzie holds forth in And Then There Were None as Florence Poskitt’s Vera Claythone looks on quizzically

Hickman’s mysterious Lombard is particularly good at keeping up a front; Poskitt may be associated with wide-eyed, squishy faced comedy but here delves into disturbing inner turmoil, a revelation that affirms she should not be pigeonholed.

Mulvihill, latterly flourishing in diverse roles beyond his musical theatre leading-man prowess, is in terrific form once more, his grave Wargrave judging everyone to damnation.  

Will Nicholson and Adam Coggin’s lighting blends in just right with each scene’s tone and Readman’s scenery in Isherwood’s engrossing production that benefits from one other Readman decision: replacing the play’s happier ending with the novel’s original darker denouement, with permission from the Christie estate. Right again, Robert.

Performances: 7.30pm nightly, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster artwork for And Then There Were None

How And Then There Were None became And Then There Were Two in York this autumn in Agatha Christie mystery

And then there was one: Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster for their first bite of the And Then There Were None cherry in York

NO productions of Agatha Christie’s house party thriller And Then There Were None in York for ages, but suddenly, like buses…and then there were two.

Andrew Isherwood’s film noir-style nail-biter for York company Pick Me Up Theatre opens at Theatre@41, Monkgate, on Friday, to be followed by Lucy Bailey’s 21st reinvention on tour at the Grand Opera House from November 21 to 25.

In Christie’s murder mystery, Europe is teetering on the brink of war when eight strangers receive an intriguing invitation to a posh house party on Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast.

These house guests are to be met by the butler and his housekeeper wife…And Then There Were Ten, but not for long.

Andrew Isherwood: Looking judgemental in Pick Me Up Theate’s social media post announcing his role as retired Inspector William Blore in And Then There Were None

All have a wicked past they are unwilling to reveal and a secret destined to seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. As the weather turns, the bloodbath begins and one by one they are brutally murdered in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme.

More on Bailey’s touring show for Fiery Angel, ROYO and the Royal & Derngate, Northampton, in November, but first the focus falls on Andrew Isherwood picking up the directorial reins for Pick Me Up for the first time, as well as playing one of the suspects already cast by producer Robert Readman, who had acquired the rights for Christie’s play ahead of the touring production incidentally.

“It’s a fantastic play,” says Andrew. “Having acted for more than ten years now, I’ve been wanting to spread my wings a little, and when this play came up, I jumped at the chance to give it a shot with a fairly sizeable cast for a piece that’s very dialogue heavy.

“Bringing together some of the best actors we have in York, it was too good an opportunity to miss. For the audience, can I find a tone and a pace to the show that keeps people engaged and involved from beginning to end?”

Jess Murray’s Emily Brent, Rory Mulvihill’s Sir Lawrence Wargrave, Martyn Hunter’s butler Rogers, Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong and Flo Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne, seated, rehearsing at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, for And Then There Were None

To do so, combining directing and acting has been challenging. “That’s for sure,” says Andrew. “To switch between performance and honing the performances of the cast, working on the fine details. I’ve focused a lot on developing as a director while maintaining committed to my role. It’s a fine balance.”

He will play retired Inspector William Henry Blore, who should know his way around a crime scene and be a dependable chap in a crisis, but when the killing starts, is this former copper the bookies’ best bet for whodunit?

“I really enjoy the duality and complexity of Blore’s character,” says Andrew. “Having the opportunity to play a character who presents himself as one thing and reveals himself to be another. To play a character within a character as it were. It’s something I’ve not done before, which is always attractive.”

Christie’s abiding popularity, on stage, screen and page, is no mystery to Andrew. “She’s a British icon; her name has instant brand recognition as it were,” he says. “Even if you’ve never even read or seen an Agatha Christie, you know she’s synonymous with intrigue, mystery and drama. I think the success of Poirot, in particular, has permeated our culture in such a way that associates itself with class and quality.”

Why are the British so fascinated by murder, mystery and death, Andrew? “It’s irresistible. The search for answers. The need to know. The intrigue, The darkness of man’s soul. The exploration of the darker side that’s quite seductive. It’s important to have some mystery to life,” he says.

Joining Isherwood’s Blore in Pick Me Up’s cast will be Flo Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne; Mike Hickman’s Philip Lombard; Rory Mulvihill’s Sir Lawrence Wargrave; husband and wife Martyn and Jeannette Hunter’s butler Rogers and housekeeper wife Mrs Rogers; Andrew Roberts’s Anthony Marston; Ian Giles’s General John MacKenzie; Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong and Jess Murray’s Emily Brent.

Such familiar faces from the York stage scene recalls the old days of repertory theatre, enjoying seeing regulars in new roles. “I’ve certainly been very lucky and blessed to have such a fantastic cast. A lot of known and returning faces gives the sense that this is a company of experienced hands,” says Andrew.

“Directing this production has been such a wonderful experience because I know the roles will be brought so brilliantly to life. It’s certainly a good feeling to know that each scene is in the hands of compelling and experienced actors, and I’ve really enjoyed working with each of them, developing, finding new folds and creases to their characters.”

From one to ten: Pick Me Up Theatre cast members Flo Poskitt, top left, Rory Mulvihill, Mike Hickman, Andrew Isherwood, Martyn Hunter, Jeanette Hunter, Ian Giles, Mark Simmonds, Andrew Roberts and Jess Murray

Producer Readman’s set design will play its part in the thrills and spills. “Robert has designed a fabulous set using levels and lighting to create mood and atmosphere. The design is created to reflect the shape of the island itself, and the lighting will be very evocative and in the style of film noir to fully immerse our audience in this world,” says Andrew. 

In this autumn of And There Were None at the double, he is “glad we’re getting in there first”. “It certainly becomes a part of professional pride that if you come to see our version, we’ll be every bit as good as you would expect from the Opera House show. I’ve felt for a long time that the line between what you would consider an ‘amateur’ show versus a ‘professional’ show is a fine one,” says Andrew.

“Definitely in the shows I’ve been involved with. From Robert Readman’s set to the costumes and the quality of the performances, it’s every bit as good as you would see in London. So come join us on the island!”

Pick Me Up Theatre in Agatha Christie’s And Then There None, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 22 to 30. Performances: 7.30pm, September 22, 23, 26 to 30; 2.30pm, September 23, 24 and 30. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

And then there were two

The artwork for Lucy Bailey’s production of And Then There Were None, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, in November

IN Lucy Bailey’s “bold and exciting” 21st reinvention of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, ten strangers are lured to a solitary mansion off the coast of Devon. When a terrible storm cuts them off from the mainland, and with their hosts mysteriously absent, the true reason for their presence on the island becomes horribly clear, as secrets from their past come back to haunt each and every one of them.

Confirmed in the cast for the York-bound Fiery Angel, ROYO and Royal & Derngate, Northampton touring production are Bob Barrett as Dr Edward Armstrong; Joseph
Beattie as Philip Lombard; Oliver Clayton as Anthony Marston; Jeffery Kissoon as General John MacKenzie and Andrew Lancel as retired Inspector William Blore.

So too are Nicola May-Taylor as Jane Pinchbeck; Katy Stephens as Emily Brent; Lucy Tregear as Georgina Rogers; Sophie Walter as Vera Claythorne; Matt Weyland as Narracott/Understudy and David Yelland as Judge Wargrave. Louise McNulty will be on understudy duty.

And then there were twelve: Lucy Bailey’s cast for And Then There Were None 

Lucy Bailey has previous form for Christie productions, having directed Witness For The Prosecution, now in its sixth year, as well as Frederick Knott’s Dial M For Murder, Baby Doll, Titus Andronicus and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

She is joined in the production team by UK Theatre Award-winning set and costume designer Mike Britton, lighting designer Chris Davey, sound designer and composer Elizabeth Purnell, fight director Renny Krupinski and movement director by Ayse Tashkiran.

Fiery Angel, ROYO and Royal & Derngate, Northampton, present And Then There Were None at Grand Opera House, York, November 21 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know?

AND Then There Were None is not only Agatha Christie’s most read work, but also the best-selling crime novel of all time, selling more than 100 million copies worldwide since its first publication in 1939.

And now there are ten as Pick Me Up Theatre announces September cast for Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. UPDATED 18/9/2023

Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster for September’s production of And Then There Were None at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

1939. Europe teeters on the brink of war. Eight strangers receive an intriguing invitation to a posh house party on Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast.

These house guests are to be met by the butler and his housekeeper wife…And Then There Were Ten, but not for long.

So begins Agartha Christie’s groundbreaking whodunit And Then There Were None, to be staged by York company Pick Me Up Theatre under Andrew Isherwood’s direction at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from September 22 to 30.

Grave expression: Rory Mulvihill, cast as Sir Lawrence Wargrave, the retired judge, in And Then There Were None

What the guests have in common is a wicked past that they are unwilling to reveal and a secret destined to seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. As the weather turns, the bloodbath begins and one by one they are brutally murdered in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme.

“Cut off from the mainland, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly, they realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number,” says producer Robert Readman. “The tension escalates as the survivors realise the killer is not only among them but also is preparing to strike again… and again.”

See Emily play up: Jess Murray, cast as “ruthlessly religious” knittijng fiend Emily Brent in And Then There Were None

Director Isherwood will be among Pick Me Up’s “fabulous cast of the county’s finest”, playing William Blore alongside Flo Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne; Mike Hickman’s Philip Lombard; Rory Mulvihill’s Sir Lawrence Wargrave; husband and wife Martyn and Jeannette Hunter’s butler Rogers and housekeeper wife Mrs Rogers; Andrew Roberts’s Anthony Marston; Ian Giles’s General John MacKenzie; Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong and Jess Murray’s Emily Brent.

Pick Me Up’s Facebook page is introducing Christie’s “motley characters” one by one in an on-going series. First up: meet Rory Mulvihill’s judge, Sir Lawrence Wargrave. “The Judge…you wouldn’t want to cross him,” forewarns Readman’s profile notes.

What the butler’s wife saw: Jeannette Hunter, picked to play housekeeper Mrs Rogers in Pick Me Up Theatre’s And Then There Were None

“Recently retired, he is intelligent, cold and commanding. During his years on the bench, he had a reputation as a ‘hanging judge’ – a judge who persuaded juries to bring back guilty verdicts and sentenced many convicted criminals to death. He should be right at home then.”

Next meet Jeanette Hunter’s Mrs Rogers. “She is the housekeeper in a big posh mansion where eight perfect strangers have been invited to spend the weekend by an unknown host. She is rather timid, has a dominating husband and she tells us she’s ‘always left to do the dirty work’,” says Readman.

Mysterious, confident, cunning: Mike Hickman’s Philip Lombard

“And there’s plenty of it in And Then There Were None but take nothing at face value in this twisty tale of murder and revenge! Jeanette’s character might not be all she seems.”

Step forward dodgy character number three: Jess Murray’s Emily Brent. “She is a ruthlessly religious woman who reads her Bible every day,” says Readman. “She might devour the good book – but her actions are anything but Christian. And she knits – like those ghouls from the guillotine!”

Does Martyn Hunter’s butler Thomas Rogers look shifty? Find out from September 22 to 25

Next up: Mike Hickman’s Philip Lombard. “A mysterious, confident and cunning man, we think he was maybe a mercenary soldier in Africa? Anyway, it looks like Mike Hickman isn’t about to take any prisoners in this role…Could he be the guilty one?” ponders Robert.

Who’s next? “Here comes Thomas Rogers…A respectable and reliable butler. Or is he? Don’t you think he looks a bit shifty? And Martin Hunter plays the part perfectly. Come and find out if he dunnit in Agatha Christie’s corking murder mystery,” says Robert.

Ian Giles’s General John Gordon McKenzie: “Upstanding”…or does that not stand up to appraisal?

How about Ian Giles’s General John Gordon Mackenzie? “He’s an upstanding military man – or is he?” asks Robert. “One of eight seemingly random guests invited to a mysterious house party in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, how could anyone think our Ian Giles could be the one wot dunnit?”

Who is Andrew Roberts playing? “This handsome devil (see below) is Anthony Marston: a rich, swanky guy who likes fast cars and fast living,” says Robert. “He seems to have no conscience but is he a murderer?”

If looks could kill…but is Andrew Roberts’s Anthony Marston the murderer in And Then There Were None

Back in York after an Edinburgh Fringe run in York musical comedy duo Fladam’s children’s show Green Fingers, Flo Poskitt takes the role of former governess Vera Claythorne, who comes to Soldier Island as secretary to fellow guest Mrs Owen.

“Flo’s Vera is clever and capable, but she is also super-nervy and suffers from attacks of hysteria, so don’t cross her off the murderer suspect list just yet,” says Robert.

“Clever and capable, but super-nervy too”: Flo Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None

“Don’t trust him – even though he’s a doctor,” he forewarns of any encounter with Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong. “The other seven guests certainly don’t. In fact Armstrong is high up the suspect list because – well, he knows media stuff, doesn’t he?! He could easily bump someone off (if he wasn’t always yearning after a large glass of scotch).

“So, is Mark Simmonds our man in And Then There Were None? If you’ve read Agatha Crhsistie’s book or seen the films, no spoilers please!”

High up on the suspect list: Mark Simmonds’s Dr Edward Armstrong

And now there are ten

INTRODCING retired Inspector William Henry Blore, director Andrew Isherwood ‘s on-stage contribution to And Then There Were None.

“He should know his way around a crime scene and be a dependable chap in a crisis – like the one ten strangers find themselves facing at a weird house party in Christie’s nail-biter,” says Robert. “But really…when the killing starts – is the former policeman your best hope?”

On closer inspection: Andrew Isherwood looks judgemental in his guise as retired Inspector William Henry Blore

Ten Little Soldiers: the back story of a sinister nursery rhyme

THIS epigraph appears at the start of Agatha Christie’s 1939 murder mystery novel, And Then There Were None, foretelling the ten deaths (spoiler alert!) that will occur on Soldier Island.

Ten Little Soldier Boys went out to Dine, one choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine  Little Soldier Boys stayed up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight  Little Soldier Boys travelling in Devon; One said he’d stay there and then there were seven.

Seven Little Soldier Boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six  Little Soldier Boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Five Little Soldier Boys going through a door; One stubbed his toe and then there were four.

Four Little Soldier Boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three Little Soldier Boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two Little Soldier Boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was One.

One  Little Soldier Boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none. 

Did you know?

THE island and Art Deco hotel of the same name that inspired Agatha Christie to write both And Then There Were None and the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under The Sun are for sale at £15 million: namely Burgh Island, off the south Devon coast. The sale includes Christie’s beach house, where she wrote, on the cliff edge.

Pick Me Up Theatre in And Then There Were None, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, September 22 to 30. Performances: 7.30pm, September 22, 23, 26 to 30; 2.30pm, September 23, 24 and 30. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk. Recommended age: eight plus.

REVIEW: Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, Grand Opera House, York ****

On tour: The company for Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. Picture: Matt Crockett

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, 70th Anniversary Tour, Grand Opera House, York, snowed in until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

PLEASING symmetry finds Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap retaining its habit of playing the Grand Opera House every three years since the mouse first escaped its London trap for a Diamond Anniversary Tour in 2013.

Giles and Mollie Ralston (Laurence Pears and Joelle Dyson) may be novice hosts at the newly opened Monkswell Manor Guest House, but the furniture and wallpaper at this converted Berkshire manor house look suitably well-worn to match a comfortingly ageing play in its 71st year, still featuring the original set design with its grand entrances and closed doors, wood panelling and faded carpets.

Snow is falling, denoted by somewhat large, sporadic flakes on coats and hats, as each guest arrives, greeted by thoroughly decent, off the cuff, somewhat grouchy Giles and very organised Mollie, who turn out to have something of Fawlty Towers’ Basil and Sybil about them in their mutual point scoring.

This is old England where rationing still simplifies the menu; the radio informing of a murder in London is still called a wireless, and every man wears a dark coat, a light scarf and a felt hat (just like the chap seen exiting the scene of the crime apparently), in an early nibble at a false trail. The audience’s laughter is of the knowing kind, happy to be played by Christie’s mind games.

Hard boiled: Gwyneth Strong’s Mrs Boyle

Christie has assembled a rum assortment of guests ripe for both humour and something altogether darker. “All our guests are unpleasant or odd,” Giles will later observe ruefully of this eccentric bunch.

Enter schizophrenic young architect Christopher Wren (Elliot Clay), a practical joker with a streak of Peter Pan in his refusal to grow up, outwardly charming but crazed inside.

Next come sourpuss old stick and former magistrate Mrs Boyle (Gwyneth Strong, with a bristling performance to match that surname); brusque lesbian Miss Casewell (a clipped Essie Barrow), and sinister Mediterranean man of mystery Mr Paravicini (Kieran Brown, parading his Barricade Boys singing chops too).

He is the only one to arrive without a booking, his car having overturned in the snow, or so he claims, but then again, he could be casing the joint. Brown’s melodramatic performance, deliberately dodgy accent to boot, is just about straight, but like Clay’s Wren, he is all the more humorous for straying towards campery.

Sanguine Major Metcalf (Nicholas Maude, understudying the unavailable Todd Carty all week) fits in well. Then whoosh, last through the door, or rather, announcing his entrance with a tap on the window, is young Detective Sergeant Trotter (Joseph Reed), who has defied the inclement weather on skis. In another gentle bend to humour under Ian Talbot and Denise Silvey’s direction, he swings them around his head, forcing guests to duck each time he turns.

Taking notes: Joseph Reed’s Detective Sergeant Trotter conducting his investigations

Once the guest house and phone line are both cut off, the humour begins to play second fiddle to the mystery (except for Brown’s mischief-making Mr Paravicini) as Reed’s Trotter conducts his investigations with rising frustration.

The truth will out, revelation by revelation, as to why everyone is there. All the while, the nursery rhyme refrain of Three Blind Mice plays its haunting part in Christie’s venerable story.

The Mousetrap, anachronistic English Fifties’ entertainment to the conservative manner born, is not the greatest play ever written, with a little stiffness in the dialogue’s limbs and an afternoon nap in its tempo in the second half. 

However, without today’s gruesome gore, it is jolly good fun, replete with the requisite twists, turns and teases, suspicions and suspense, allied to psychological nous, to keep you guessing in the dark as the nerves tingle.

The affable cast members, with their dapper dress and plummy accents, have a period flavour about them that delights, and no rotter will surely defy Trotter’s request at the final curtain to keep schtum about whodunnit.

By Charles Hutchinson

More Things To Do in York and beyond for rebels and revellers alike. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 10 for 2023, from The Press, York

On the run: Pilot Theatre in Manjeet Mann’s teenage drama Run, Rebel. Picture: Pamela Raith

A TEENAGE rebel,  a vintage murder mystery, panel games, circus and singing feats and a diverse women’s festival command Charles Hutchinson’s attention. 

Play premiere of the week: Pilot Theatre in Run, Rebel, York Theatre Royal, 7pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 1pm, Wednesday to Friday; 2pm, Saturday

SCHOOLGIRL Amber Rai is trapped by her family’s rules, their expectations, her own fears, but on the running track she is completely free. As her body speeds up, the world slows down, the tangled lines in her head becoming straighter.

York company Pilot Theatre combine physical theatre and mesmerising visuals in Manjeet Mann’s stage adaptation of her verse novel, suitable for age 11 upwards, as she addresses domestic violence, alcoholism, bullying and discrimination. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Blue diamond ceramic by Ilona Sulikova at Pyramid Gallery, York

Exhibition of the week: Abstract, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until March 28, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Friday; 10am to 5.30pm, Saturdays

CZECH-BORN York ceramacist Ilona Sulikova will be at Pyramid Gallery today from 12 noon to 2pm to meet gallery visitors and give an insight to her large, full-bodied raku-fired vessels , decorated with intricate geometric patterns that repeat, expand and contract as they progress. “The intention is to create sequences of rhythm and movement,” she says.

Abstract complements ceramics by Sulikova and Carolyn Genders with oil paintings by Kimbal Bumstead and glass sculptures by Crispian Heath, Yuki Kokai and Jon Lewis. 

Elysian Singers: Psalms, sonnets and songs at the Unitarian Chapel

Concerts at the double: Late Music presents Ruth Lee, Harp Recital, March 4, 1pm to 2pm; Elysian Singers, Psalms, Sonnets And Songs, March 4, 7.30pm; both at St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, York

IN an afternoon concert of folk-inspired new music for harp, Ruth Lee premieres a David Lancaster work, visits Eleanor Turner’s Alice In Escher’s Wonderland and gives a rare performance of Hindemith’s Sonata for Harp (First Movement).

At night, the Elysian Singers present a tripartite modern take on the milestone publication of William Byrd’s Psalmes, Sonnets and Songs Of Sadness and Piety in 1588. Composer Nick Williams gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm ahead of the premiere of his new work. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.

Rachael Maskell MP: Taking part in York International Women’s Week

Festival of the week: York International Women’s Week, March 4 until March 12

UNDER the theme of Solidarity, York International Women’s Week embraces live and online events. A full programme is available at yorkinternationalwomensweek.wordpress.com or in print from community venues, libraries, cafés and independent shops.

Among the highlights will be End Period Poverty: A Community Conversation in the Priory Street Centre on March 10 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Confirmed for the panel are chair Justine Hughes, activist and period queen Anna Johnston, York Central MP Rachael Maskell, Freedom4Girls’ Tina Leslie and YorKits’ Janice Lawson.

I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue: Host Jack Dee and his panellists Tony Hawks, Pippa Evans, Marcus Brigstocke and Milton Jones at York Barbican

Spoilt for choice at York Barbican: Cirque, The Greatest Show, March 5, 1pm and 5pm; I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, March 6, 8pm; Giovanni Pernice: Made In Italy, March 9, 7.30pm

MUSICAL theatre meets circus spectacle in Cirque, where West End and Broadway hits combine with aerialists, contortionists, and feats of agility and flair.

Droll Jack Dee hosts BBC Radio 4’s antidote to panel games, setting the challenges to Tony Hawks, Pippa Evans, Milton Jones and Marcus Brigstocke. Cue inspired nonsense, Mornington Crescent and musical accompaniment from Colin Sell.

Strictly Come Dancing 2021 professional champ Giovanni Pernice journeys to his homeland in Made In Italy, promising hot, hot, hot action with his ensemble of ballroom dancers and singers.  Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Giovanni Pernice: Made in Italy, performing in York

Murder mystery in York: The Mousetrap, Grand Opera House, York, March 6 to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

AGATHA Christie’s mystery The Mousetrap, “the longest running play in the world”, takes in a return to York’s Grand Opera House on its 70th anniversary tour.

Ian Talbot directs this twisting, turning tale of intrigue and suspense set at Monkswell Manor, a stately countryside guesthouse where seven strangers find themselves snowed in as news spreads of a murder in London. When a police sergeant arrives, the guests discover – to their horror – that a killer is in their midst, but whodunnit? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Conducting enquiries: Joseph Reed as Detective Sergeant Trotter in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Matt Crockett

Soulful musical journey of the week: Arsen Petrosyan, National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, March 10, 7.30pm

ARMENIAN duduk specialist Arsen Petrosyan returns to the NCEM after his Making Tracks showcase there. This time he leads his quartet, featuring Astghik Snetsunts (on qanun), Avetis Keoseyan (dhol/percussion) and Vladimir Papikyan (santur), through Armenian traditional, early, classical and sacred music. 

Hokin Janapar: My Soul’s Journey is his nostalgic exploration of the  music that has stirred his soul in turbulent times, reflecting the continued odyssey of his nation on the border between Europe and Asia. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Arsen Petrosyan: Playing Armenian duduk music at NCEM, York

The great gig in the café: 50 Years of Dark Side Of The Moon: Vinyl Listening Party, FortyFive Vinyl Café, Micklegate, York, March 23, 6pm to 7pm

CELEBRATING 50 years of one of the greatest albums of all time, FortyFive Vinyl Cafe is marking this momentous occasion by inviting you to bask in an early second issue of the original 1973 pressing of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon.

“These copies were produced for a short time only, between first pressing and first repress,” explains Dom White, from FortyFive. A short break for drinks will bridge the gap between Sides 1 and 2, the other side of the ‘Moon’. Reissued vinyl copies of the album will be for sale, along with a new book detailing the vinyl pressing history. Entry is free.

Dark Side Of The Moon: Welcome to the Pink Floyd Listening Party at FortyFive Vinyl Café, York