THEATRE 40 ANNOUNCES CAST FOR AGATHA CHRISTIE'S FIRST PLAY HERCULE POIROT SOLVES MYSTERY IN ''BLACK COFFEE''

Director BRUCE GRAY has announced his cast for BLACK COFFEE, AGATHA CHRISTIE’S first staged whodunit and the only play to feature everyone’s favorite solver of mysteries, Hercule Poirot. THEATRE 40 celebrates the start of their 45th Season with BLACK COFFEE opening on July 7th at their Reuben Cordova Theatre on the Beverly Hills High School Campus. (NOTE: For this production only - Monday through Saturday curtain time is 7:30 PM)

AGATHA CHRISTIE was an exceptional observer of her times. Throughout her writings she gives us a very clear description of British society. In BLACK COFFEE, she gives us a look at that society recovering from World War I. Every person in the play has been shaped by that experience. Christie wrote more best-selling crime novels than any other writer and in the 1930’s she began a ''second career'' as a record-breaking playwright - Murder at the Vicarage (adapted by Charles and Toy with her assistance); Murder on the Nile (film); Witness for the Prosecution (both a film and stage play); And Then There Were None (or Ten Little Indians); and the longest running play in the history of theatre, The Mousetrap.

Director BRUCE GRAY’S cast for BLACK COFFEE includes; TOM DUGAN as Hercule Poirot with TIM ASTOR, CHRISTY HOLY, NICHOLAS HOSKING, LIZANNE KEIGLEY, SHELBY KOCEE, KATHARINE McEWAN, JOHN McGUIRE, DON MOSS, LARY OHLSON, COREY REIGER, DAVID HUNT STAFFORD and RANDY VASQUEZ.

The technical staff for BLACK COFFEE includes: Set Design - JEFF G. RACK; Light Design - DAN REED; Costume Design - JOYCE FERRER; Sound Design - MELANIE MacQUEEN; Stage Manager - JEFFREY WILSON and Producer - DAVID HUNT STAFFORD.

BLACK COFFEE opens July 7, 2010 and c