Peter Polycarpou’s Hercule Poirot in the poster for Fiery Angel’s tour of The Hollow
TWO-TIME Olivier Award nominee Peter Polycarpou will play Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the 2026-2027 UK & Ireland tour of The Hollow, playing the Grand Opera House, York, from May 18 to 22.
After sold-out tours of And Then There Were None, Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile, producers Fiery Angel and director Lucy Bailey will team up again to present another of Christie’s psychologically complex mysteries from this autumn.
The Hollow will be toured in a new version by Tamsin Oglesby, whose credits include Future Conditional (Old Vic Theatre) and Really Old, Like Forty Five (National Theatre).
Renowned detective Hercule Poirot expected a quiet break in the country; instead he is drawn into one of the most unsettling cases of his career at The Hollow, an elegant country estate, where a glamorous circle of guests gathers one summer evening.
Beneath the sunlit charm, something darker coils. Old passions refuse to die. New rivalries ignite. Dangerous infatuations take hold. Then a shot rings out. A body is discovered, then a smoking revolver in an unsteady hand. The scene appears almost staged, but what looks to be a shockingly straightforward crime turns out to be anything but.
Looking forward to directing her fifth Christie classic, Bailey says: “The Hollow is one of Agatha Christie’s most powerful and arresting plays. At first glance, it appears to be a classic country-house mystery, but it’s something far richer: a family ruthlessly clinging to the past, failed relationships and illicit love.
Director Lucy Bailey. Picture: Manuel Harlan
“Christie gathers a circle of brilliantly drawn characters to an English country estate and lets long-buried family tensions simmer until a sudden act of violence shatters the idyll. When the unthinkable happens, it falls to the incomparable Hercule Poirot to unravel the truth.
“Equally comic and tragic, it’s a play about people trapped between the lives they have and the lives they longed for. That tension makes The Hollow feel startlingly contemporary.”
The Hollow will be produced by Fiery Angel in association with Agatha Christie Limited and the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Joining Bailey in the production team will be costume designer Joanna Parker, lighting designer Chris Davey and sound designer and composer Nick Powell. Casting is Ginny Schiller.
James Prichard, of Agatha Christie Limited, said: “We are thrilled to be working once again with Lucy Bailey and Fiery Angel on this bold new production of The Hollow. A sharply observed and unsettling drama, it showcases a fascinatingly different facet of my great grandmother’s storytelling, and we are excited for audiences across the UK and Ireland to experience it anew.”
Lead actor Polycarpou’s stage credits include Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry and Hello, Dolly!, while his screen work includes House Of The Dragon, Birds Of A Feather, The Diplomat, The Brutalist and Evita. He received Olivier nominations for his performances in Oslo and The Band’s Visit.
Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.