YORK company Theatre Mill is returning to the scene of last year’s criminal investigation to mount a revival of their groundbreaking site-specific production of Agatha Christie’s Witness For The Prosecution.

What’s more, they are to stage the courtroom drama not only in the York Guildhall Council Chamber, in St Helen’s Square, York, from this week until July 12, but also at the three-times-larger Leeds Civic Hall, in Portland Crescent, Leeds, from July 28 to August 30.

Welcoming this summer’s expansion, producer and company founder Rebecca Stafford says: “It’s always an exciting prospect to present a play for the first time in a building of great historical significance. Both venues will have experienced their first foray into the world of theatre because of this particular production. As the work is shaped to capture the true spirit of a building, the Council Chambers are the perfect setting for audiences to witness the Queen of Crime’s shocking twists and turns that never fail to surprise.”

Mathew Prichard, grandson of Agatha Christie and chairman of Agatha Christie Limited, says he looks forward to the second summer of witnessing Witness For The Prosecution, having approved the inaugural site-specific staging last year: “It’s been thrilling to follow audiences discovering my grandmother’s work from a fresh new perspective.

“Theatre Mill’s renowned approach to revealing plays and spaces together in a new light is a wonderful way to make this happen and I shall be intrigued to see the combination work its magic in not one but two spaces this year.”

You could not imagine a better setting to re-enact a court case than a council chamber: solemn, dark, wood panelled, with seating arranged as if in an amphitheatre that serves as a public gallery, with other members of the audience in the jury seats or near the judge. Into the dock will step slippery Leonard Vole, a man of gentlemanly airs but washed up financially, who stands accused of murdering the nice “old” woman (aged 56, it turns out), whom he had befriended to his ultimate financial benefit.

Where was he at 9.30pm on the night of her murder? At home with his German wife Romaine, as he claims, or at the house of the victim, as Scottish housekeeper Scot Janet Mackenzie insists?

Theatre Mill director Samuel Wood, a former associate director of Shakespeare’s Globe, is at the helm once more, in charge of a sizeable cast that has two leading regional actors as newcomers to the production. Niall Costigan, whose father George is in York too playing George Hudson in York Theatre Royal’s In Fog And Falling Snow, will follow up his Theatre Royal appearances in Mike Kenny’s The Legend Of King Arthur and Caryl (CORRECT)Churchill’s A Number by taking the role of the accused, Leonard Vole.

Gordon Kane, a York City-supporting Scotsman, long resident in York and long associated with myriad northern theatres, will be Vole’s defence barrister, Sir Wilfrid Robarts QC. He was seen most recently on a York stage in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Mike Kenny’s Wind In The Willows at the Theatre Royal, and performing alongside him will be Rachel Logan, Clive Moore, Adam Elms, Chris Wilkinson, Pam Hilton, Tom Jackson, Lowenna Melrose, Julian Finnigan, Paul Toy, Sam Gannon and Isobel Hughes.

Samuel Wood is accompanied in the production team by designer by Natalie Roe and lighting designer Andy Pilliner, as well as producer Rebecca Stafford.

Samuel has returned to Christie’s play afresh. “Shortly after we presented it the first time, I was employed as the editor of re-mastering Agatha Christie’s canon of theatre works, so I’ve been tackling every other Christie play in existence, roughly 17, and I’ve got just a few more to go,” he says.

“So I’ve come back to this play with a different head on my shoulders, and while there’s a case for saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, there’s still a way of doing that while bringing in new cast members.

“What’s been interesting for me is to talk to the actors, to ask what they want to do with it, and that has changed the play 80, 90 per cent with a different tone to the new actors.”

Samuel is excited too by the prospect of taking Christie’s courtroom drama to Leeds Civic Hall. “As it’s three times bigger, it will be interesting to see how it changes the play because there’s something about the claustrophobia of the York Guildhall Council Chamber, but I think there’s enough in the drama to make it...I hate the word epic, but this play is so dexterous it will hold its power in the bigger space,” he says.

“What I can say is that with both chambers, you can’t rest for a minute as an actor because the audience is constantly there, close up, and the devil is constantly in the detail.”

* Tickets are available from York Theatre Royal on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and Leeds Grand Theatre on 08448 482 700 or leedsgrandtheatre.com

EARLY BIRD READER OFFER: Book one of the performances by June 24 and receive a 15 per cent discount*. Quote REPORTER1 at the point of booking.

 

* Terms and conditions: The offer is valid until June 24 2015. The offer is available on the full ticket price only. Concession tickets can not be used in conjunction with this offer. Applicable to York Guildhall and Leeds Civic Hall venues.