Peter Polycarpou will play Agatha Christie’s legendary Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the new UK and Ireland tour of The Hollow, opening at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury on 9 October 2026.
Produced by Fiery Angel in association with Agatha Christie Limited and the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, the production follows previous touring successes And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.
The new stage version has been adapted by Tamsin Oglesby, whose theatre credits include Future Conditional and Really Old, Like Forty Five, and is directed by Lucy Bailey, returning for her fifth Agatha Christie stage thriller.
Polycarpou’s recent stage work includes Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Hello, Dolly!. His screen credits include House of the Dragon, Birds of a Feather, The Brutalist and Evita. He has received Olivier Award nominations for Oslo and The Band’s Visit.
In The Hollow, Poirot arrives at a country estate expecting a peaceful retreat, only to find himself caught up in one of the most disturbing mysteries of his career.
Set at an elegant country house, the story follows a glamorous gathering of guests whose hidden tensions, rivalries and infatuations come to the surface when a gunshot shatters the tranquillity of a summer evening.
James Prichard of Agatha Christie Limited said, “We are thrilled to be working once again with Lucy Bailey and Fiery Angel on this bold new production of The Hollow. A sharply observed and unsettling drama, it showcases a fascinatingly different facet of my great grandmother’s storytelling, and we are excited for audiences across the UK and Ireland to experience it anew.”
Lucy Bailey said, “The Hollow is one of Agatha Christie’s most powerful and arresting plays. At first glance it appears to be a classic country-house mystery, but it’s something far richer: a family ruthlessly clinging to the past, failed relationships and illicit love.
Christie gathers a circle of brilliantly drawn characters to an English country estate and lets long-buried family tensions simmer until a sudden act of violence shatters the idyll. When the unthinkable happens, it falls to the incomparable Hercule Poirot to unravel the truth.
Equally comic and tragic, it’s a play about people trapped between the lives they have and the lives they longed for. That tension makes The Hollow feel startlingly contemporary.”
The production features set and costume design by Joanna Parker, lighting design by Chris Davey, sound design and composition by Nick Powell, and casting by Ginny Schiller.
Following its opening engagement in Canterbury, The Hollow will tour extensively across the UK and Ireland through to May 2027, with newly announced dates added in Leeds, Norwich, Dublin, York and Glasgow.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
