Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d to be adapted for the stage for the first time ever in the UK

A Wales Millennium Centre and Wiltshire Creative Production
THE MIRROR CRACK’D
by Agatha Christie
adapted for the stage
by Rachel Wagstaff

Direction by Melly Still
Set Design by Richard Kent
Costume Design by Dinah Collin
Lighting Design by Malcolm Rippeth
Music & Sound Design by Jon Nicholls

  • AGATHA CHRISTIE’S THE MIRROR CRACK’D TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THE UK
  • THE WALES MILLENNIUM CENTRE AND WILTSHIRE CREATIVE EUROPEAN PREMIERE PRODUCTION WILL TOUR FROM FEBRUARY 2019

Wales Millennium Centre and Wiltshire Creative are thrilled to announce the first ever UK stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s much-loved Miss Marple thriller The Mirror Crack’d from Side to SideThe Mirror Crack’d will be a European Premiere, opening at Salisbury Playhouse on 15 February before touring to Dublin, Cambridge and Cardiff. The Mirror Crack’d will have an Opening Night on 25 February.

The iconic Marple mystery from the world’s best-selling author of all time will be adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff (Flowers for Mrs Harris, Birdsong) and directed by Melly Still (Coram Boy, My Brilliant Friend).  Casting is still to be announced.

Times are changing. Girls are wearing trousers and Hollywood has come to a sleepy English village in the shape of a beautiful film star. Miss Marple is left to feel that the world has no need of her now until a mysterious death calls into question the past of all those present.  Everyone’s version of events is different.  Can Miss Marple unravel the tangle of lies?

Graeme Farrow, Artistic Director, Wales Millennium Centre said: “We are hugely excited to bring a dynamic, thoroughly modern Marple to the stage and to work again with Rachel Wagstaff and Melly Still. This is also our first collaboration with Wiltshire Creative. Co-producing across nations and regions is extremely important in order to create new work today. We hope that The Mirror Crack’d will provide Agatha Christie fans with a new twist and attract new audiences to her work”.

Gareth Machin, Artistic Director, Wiltshire Creative said: Gareth Machin, Artistic Director, Wiltshire Creative said: “We are delighted to be working with Wales Millennium Centre for the first time and will be excited to see Rachel’s brilliant adaptation bringing the legendary Miss Marple to a new audience here in Salisbury and beyond. We are very proud to be co-producing this major project as part of our inaugural season.”

Rachel Wagstaff wrote the book for multi-award-winning musical, Flowers for Mrs Harris, returning to Chichester Festival Theatre in September, directed by Daniel Evans. Her critically acclaimed adaptation of Birdsong (West End) is now on its fourth UK tour. Rachel wrote the book for new musical Only the Brave, which was produced at the Wales Millennium Centre in 2016. Most recently, Rachel co-wrote, with Duncan Abel, a stage version of Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train.

Melly Still has worked as a director, choreographer, designer and adaptor for many companies including the National Theatre, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bristol Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre, The Manchester Royal Exchange and the Young Vic. She has been nominated for Olivier and Tony awards (best director and best design). Her work has travelled throughout the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, the Far East, US and Broadway. Melly recently directedTiger Bay the Musical at Wales Millennium Centre and Cape Town Opera. Other recent credits include: My Brilliant Friend (Rose Theatre); Cymbeline (Royal Shakespeare Company) and The Cunning Little Vixen (Glyndebourne Opera Festival).

Wales Millennium Centre is a landmark arts venue and a cultural destination, which presents touring talent from across the globe as well as creating its own productions. It has created a portfolio of productions over the last decade which provide an insight into what the future might hold for the Centre, producing work from operas, play and musicals, to a major new festival, presenting work all over the world, from New York and London to Dubai, as well as across the UK.  Recent productions and co-productions have included: Man to Man by Manfred Karge in a new version translated by Alexandra Wood; Only the Brave, a co-production with Soho Theatre, Daniel Sparrow Productions and Birdsong Productions; Mandela Trilogy, a UK and Ireland tour of this operatic tribute to one of the world’s most iconic figures and La Voix Humaine, an immersive chamber opera by Francis Poulenc, original lyrics from the play by Jean Cocteau.  2016 saw Wales Millennium Centre produce its first festival, The Festival of Voice – celebrating just that. The 10-day event featured over 100 performances across the city, immersing Cardiff in the incredible talents of singers and performers from across the globe. In 2017 the centre produced and premiered Tiger Bay the Musical, a major new musical set in Cardiff’s Butetown at the dawn of the 20th century.

Wiltshire Creative is a new pan-arts organisation that brings together the energy and ambition of Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury International Arts Festival and Salisbury Playhouse. It is an ambitious and innovative joint arts offer that secures a bright future for audiences, artists and participants.

LISTINGS

THE MIRROR CRACK’D
by Agatha Christie
adapted for the stage
by Rachel Wagstaff

First performance: 15 February 2019
Final performance: 6 April 2019
Opening Night: 25 February

15 February – 9 March 2019
Salisbury Playhouse
Tickets on sale from 5 June
01722 320 333
www.wiltshirecreative.co.uk

12 March – 16 March 2019
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
Tickets on sale soon
0818 719388
www.gaietytheatre.ie

19– 23 March 2019
Cambridge Arts Theatre
Tickets on sale soon
01223 503333
www.cambridgeartstheatre.com

26 March – 6 April 2019
New Theatre, Cardiff
Tickets on sale from 6 July
029 2087 8889
www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk