UK News
The Mirror Crack'd UK Tour 2022
The Original Theatre Company Presents Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd
Adapted for the Stage by Rachel Wagstaff and Directed by Philip Franks
UK Tour Opens 8th September 2022
We are delighted to announce that the award-winning Original Theatre Company will be bringing Miss Marple to the stage in a brand new production of Rachel Wagstaff’s acclaimed adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack'd. The production, directed by Philip Franks, will begin its UK Tour at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne on 8 September 2022.
The Mirror Crack'd will star Susie Blake as Miss Marple, with further casting to be announced.
In 1960s England, a wind of change is blowing through the land. It has even reached the sleepy village of St Mary Mead. There’s a new housing estate to make the villagers curious and fearful and, even stranger, a rich American film star has bought the manor house. Jane Marple, confined to a chair after an accident, is wondering if life has passed her by. Then there is a vicious murder, and Miss Marple must unravel a web of lies, tragedy and danger. This adaptation of Agatha Christie’s famous novel brings real emotional depth and psychological insight to a thrilling story of revenge and dark secrets.
The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side was published in the UK in 1962 and adapted as a feature film, The Mirror Crack’d, in 1980, starring Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis. On television, adaptations of the novel have starred Joan Hickson as Miss Marple in 1992 and Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple in 2011.
Rachel Wagstaff’s new version of Agatha Christie’s fascinating mystery has real heart and depth as well as tension. It’s witty, exciting, fresh and surprising.
I am so excited to be working with The Original Theatre Company on this new production of The Mirror Crack’d, a fascinating mystery, packed with a rich constellation of characters, all struggling with loneliness and the long shadows cast by grief. I have always loved Miss Marple’s wry observations about human nature and her desire to put the world quietly to rights, so it’s a pleasure to welcome back the acclaimed and wonderful actor, Susie Blake, to play the role of Jane Marple.
I am delighted that Rachel’s excellent stage adaptation of The Mirror Crack’d is coming back to UK theatres with such a formidable creative team behind it. Miss Marple is one of literature’s greatest detectives, and I am excited to share this production with audiences throughout the UK.
Playing Miss Marple is every actor’s dream over the age of 50. To play a bright, independent, older woman is surprising and exciting for the period it was written in as well as in our society today.
Susie Blake is best known for playing the Continuity Announcer in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, as well as her regular roles of Bev Unwin in ITV’s Coronation Street and Hillary Nicholson in BBC’s Mrs Brown’s Boys. She has recently appeared in series one and two of Kate & Koji (ITV), Not Going Out (BBC One) and The Real Marigold Hotel (BBC One). Her films include Fierce Creatures and Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?!. Her theatre credits include Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical (Hall for Cornwall), Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em (UK Tour), My Fair Lady (Grange Festival), Grumpy Old Women Live 2 & 3, When We Are Married (West End), Pygmalion (Chichester Festival Theatre), Madame Morrible in Wicked (West End) and Belinda Blair in Noises Off (National Theatre).
The Mirror Crack'd will be directed by Philip Franks (Barnes’ People, The Haunting of Alice Bowles, The Habit of Art, The Croft and A Cold Supper Behind Harrods) and designed by Adrian Linford, with lighting design by Emma Chapman and casting by Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG.
The UK Tour will be produced by Alastair Whatley and Tom Hackney for The Original Theatre Company, the production company behind the critically acclaimed lockdown online productions of Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong Online, Louise Coulthard’s Watching Rosie, Torben Betts’s Apollo 13: The Dark Side of The Moon, Philip Franks’s The Haunting of Alice Bowles and Peter Barnes’s Barnes’ People, as well as the stage productions A Splinter of Ice, The Habit of Art, Invincible and Birdsong.
Tour Schedule
8 – 17 September Eastbourne Devonshire Park 01323 412000
20 – 24 September Darlington Hippodrome 01325 405405
4 – 8 October York Theatre Royal 01904 623568 (on sale)
17 – 22 October Mold Theatr Clwyd 01352 344101 (on sale)
31 October – 5 November Northampton Royal & Derngate 01604 624811 (on sale)
8 – 12 November Norwich Theatre Royal 01603 630000 (on sale)
28 November - 3 December Southend Palace Theatre 0343 310 0030 (on sale)
31 January - 4 February Cambridge Arts Theatre 01223 503333 (on sale soon)
7 - 11 February Wycombe Swan 0343 310 0060 (on sale)
14 - 18 February Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham 0333 009 6690 (on sale)
21 - 25 February Rose Theatre, Kingston 020 8174 0090 (on sale)
28 February - 4 March His Majesty's, Aberdeen 01224 641122 (on sale)
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