David Suchet Poirot and More, A Retrospective – Festival Theatre

At one point in this show David Suchet tells the audience the moment he knew he had to be an actor. He describes seeing the stage be prepared from the audience and having the epiphany that this was storytelling, that this was magic. If there was ever any doubt that David Suchet was a born storyteller, and there wasn’t, then this show proves it wrong. He has that magic.

Suchet has spent 25 years (or at least part of every one of them) playing Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. His interpretation is widely judged to be the definitive version of the character, not only in its characterisation but also its scope, as the series covered all (or almost all, if we’re being pedantic) of the Poirot novels and short stories and is said to always be on TV somewhere in the world every second of every day. This could well be judged enough to justify a show, but the “and more” of the title also carries itself. Over the course of an additional 30 years before, during and after Poirot, the Emmy award-winning actor has played such iconic roles such as Lady Bracknell, Antonio Salieri, Augustus Mellmotte, Professor Moriarty and Sigmund Freud.

The first half of the show takes us, guided by the questions of Geoffrey Wansell, through Suchet’s life from his first performances to his training and his most famous roles, thanks to anecdotes, on-screen photos and some stage props. Like a previous Poirot Peter Ustinov, Suchet is a born raconteur, jumping up to narrate or impersonate specific parts in and of his stories, and the show knows that less is more in terms of staging when we have him.

The second half of these shows is often where their individuality can lie. Some just continuing on with the interview, while others shake things up, with an audience Q&A for example. But Suchet is a born actor, and so we open with only a spot in the dark void of Peter Brook’s empty space, screen off, and a monologue from Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, before a crash course in understanding and performing Shakespeare illustrated with monologues from Oberon from Midsummer Night’s Dream, Caliban from The Tempest, Macbeth from some unknown play, and Sonnet 130 from… oh, what were they called? Ah yes, Shakespeare’s Limericks.

Attempts to demystify Shakespeare are always appreciated in a country where schools seem to go out of their way to make him sound difficult and boring, and Suchet is clearly aware of that, keeping things light, clear and concise. Suchet is at pains to underline that he always works in the service of “his” writer, be he/she alive or dead (though most often, he says, they are dead). This process has clearly played its part in the development and success of his Poirot, to which we return near the end, almost like a rock star’s encore often had their biggest hit, with the process to develop the physicality of Poirot, around some final questions from Wansell.

As devised by Suchet in collaboration with Liza McLean, and wife Sheila Suchet, and with structure and interplay provided by Wansell, a friend of Suchet’s for 30 years, the retrospective is polished, with the storytelling matching the calibre of the performer and the contents hitting all the areas a fan would want with honesty, humour and depth. Poirot? Yes. More? Also, yes.

Reviewer: Oliver Giggins

Reviewed: 26th January 2024

North West End UK Rating: