Peter Polycarpou to play Hercule Poirot in UK & Ireland tour of THE HOLLOW
Photo credit: Oliver Rosser
Two-time Olivier Award nominee Peter Polycarpou (Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular) will play Agatha Christie's legendary Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the UK & Ireland tour of The Hollow, which opens at Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury on 9 October.
Following Canterbury, the tour will visit Truro, Richmond, Belfast, Newcastle, Cardiff, Guildford, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Brighton, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Cheltenham, Malvern, Sheffield, Bath, Plymouth, Salford, Norwich, Dublin, York, and Glasgow, with further venues to be announced.
Producers Fiery Angel and director Lucy Bailey partner once again to bring one of Agatha Christie’s psychologically complex mysteries to the stage this autumn in a new version by Tamsin Oglesby.
The production is directed by Lucy Bailey, with set and costume design by Joanna Parker, lighting by Chris Davey, sound and composition by Nick Powell, and casting by Ginny Schiller.
Renowned detective Hercule Poirot expected a quiet break in the country; instead he’s drawn into one of the most unsettling cases of his career.
At The Hollow, an elegant country estate, a glamorous circle of guests gather together one summer evening. But 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. A smoking revolver in an unsteady hand. The scene appears almost staged; a shockingly straightforward crime…. It is anything but.
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.”
Having recently directed four of Christie's classic thrillers for the stage, this will be Lucy Bailey's fifth.
She said: “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. 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.”
To book tickets for The Hollow at select touring venues, please click here.