PRESS RELEASE – Wednesday 24 October 2018 IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE @theCentre / Facebook / Instagram / www.wmc.org.uk @wiltscreative / Facebook / Instagram / www.wiltshirecreative.co.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 • SUSIE BLAKE AND SIMON SHEPHERD JOIN THE CAST FOR THE FIRST EVER UK STAGE ADAPTATION OF AGATHA CHRISTIE’S THE MIRROR CRACK’D • THE WALES MILLENNIUM CENTRE AND WILTSHIRE CREATIVE EUROPEAN PREMIERE PRODUCTION WILL TOUR FROM FEBRUARY 2019 Wales Millennium Centre and Wiltshire Creative have today announced initial casting for the first ever UK stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s much-loved Miss Marple thriller The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. The 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. Miss Marple will be played by Susie Blake, known as Hilary Nicholson in Mrs Brown’s Boys, Bev Unwin in Coronation Street and The Continuity Announcer in Victoria Wood As Seen on TV. Having worked extensively on stage and screen, her theatre credits include: When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre); Pygmalion (Chichester Festival Theatre); Wicked (Apollo Victoria); High Society (UK Tour); Noises Off (National Theatre); The Shakespeare Revue (RSC). Television credits include: Midsomer Murders ; You, Me and Them (UKTV Gold); Wild At Heart (ITV); Cuckoo (BBC 3); New Tricks (BBC); Mud (CBBC). Susie Blake said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be taking on this part, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to play a role like this my whole career. I loved watching the great Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple and always wanted to be her when I was growing up. I admire Miss Marple’s incredible brain and very much look forward to putting my own spin on the character with the fantastic creative team.” Simon Shepherd will take on the role of the Scotland Yard inspector Dermot Craddock. Best known for playing the role of Dr. Will Preston in the popular ITV television series Peak Practice. His theatre credits include: Misalliance; Precious Little Talent (Orange Tree); Evening at the Talkhouse (National Theatre); Hay Fever (Duke of York’s); Duck House (Vaudeville); Posh (Royal Court/Duke of York’s). Other television credits include: Casualty, Father Brown (BBC); Tilly Trotter (ITV). Simon Shepherd said: “Dermot Craddock is my first Chief Inspector role. Craddock interviewed me as Patrick Simmons in Murder is Announced for the BBC about 30 years ago. It was a great Alan Plater adaptation with Joan Hickson playing Miss Marple. It feels like things have come full circle! I am delighted to be working with the brilliant Melly Still again on this sharp, fresh adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff.” The iconic Marple mystery from the world’s best-selling author of all time has been adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff (Flowers for Mrs Harris, Birdsong) and directed by Melly Still (Coram Boy, My Brilliant Friend, The Lovely Bones). Full casting will be announced soon. 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? -ENDS- For further information please contact Maisie Lawrence at The Corner Shop PR on 020 7831 7657 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 now 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 NOTES TO EDITORS Wales Millennium Centre is a landmark arts venue and a cultural destination, which presents the best available touring talent from across the globe as well as creating its own productions. The Centre is a charity whose aim is to Inspire our Nation, Impress the World. This is achieved by creating inspirational and life changing experiences that broaden horizons and touring productions that showcase Wales to the world. Wales Millennium Centre has been presenting world renowned visiting productions for over a decade and, as Wales’ national arts venue, have also invested in, and introduced, a wide variety of emerging theatre, contemporary work, artists and the very best international performers. Wales Millennium Centre 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 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 what Wales is most famous for – voice. 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. On its 7.5 acre site in Cardiff Bay, the Centre has a 1900 seat lyric theatre, named after its founding patron Sir Donald Gordon which is designed for opera, large scale musicals, ballet and contemporary dance. Other performance spaces include the 250 seat theatre – the Weston Studio, a 160 seat cabaret venue, a dance house, a 350 seat recital hall and a state of the art recording facility - BBC Hoddinott Hall. Wales Millennium Centre is also home to eight other cultural organisations, including Welsh National Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Literature Wales, as well as inclusive arts organisation, Hijinx Theatre and the Touch Trust. Annually the Centre receives over 1.5 million visitors making it Wales’ number one visitor attraction. For further information about the Centre please visit: wmc.org.uk Wales Millennium Centre is a registered charity, number – 1060458. About Wiltshire Creative Launched in February 2018, Wiltshire Creative is a pan-arts organisation that brings together Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury International Arts Festival and Salisbury Playhouse. Salisbury Playhouse is one of Britain’s leading producing theatres, with a national reputation for home-grown work of the highest quality that attracts audiences from across Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset and beyond. Recent productions include Chris Chibnall’s WORST WEDDING EVER (part of our Original Drama programme), the regional premiere of Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s HER NAKED SKIN, new musical MOONFLEET by Gareth Machin and Russell Hepplewhite and Barney Norris’s ECHO’S END. This season Wiltshire Creative has also collaborated with LGBTQ+ museum Queer Britain on the exhibition OUR NAKED SKIN and with musician Nick Harper on A WILTSHIRE TALE. Salisbury International Arts Festival 2019 runs from 24 May to 8 June 2019 with Guest Festival Director composer Jonathan Dove. For more information visit www.wiltshirecreative.co.uk About Agatha Christie Limited Agatha Christie Limited (ACL) has been managing the literary and media rights to Agatha Christie's works around the world since 1955, working with the best talents on stage, in film, television, publishing and on digital platforms to ensure that Christie’s work continues to reach new audiences in innovative ways and to the highest standard. The company is managed by Christie’s great grandson James Prichard. Recent theatre collaborations include the critically-acclaimed Witness for the Prosecution at County Hall in London, working with Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions, and Murder on the Orient Express adapted by Ken Ludwig, with productions at McCarter Theatre in Princeton and Hartford, Connecticut, USA. ACL also works closely with international theatre companies developing in-territory stage productions. ACL’s recent television projects include the BBC One adaptations of Ordeal by Innocence, The Witness for the Prosecution and And Then There Were None, all produced alongside Mammoth Screen with screenplays from Sarah Phelps (Great Expectations, The Casual Vacancy). November 2017 saw the release of 20th Century Fox’s feature film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s acclaimed mystery Murder on the Orient Express, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot and with an all-star cast. A box office hit, Murder on the Orient Express will be followed by a big screen adaptation of Death on the Nile. .