Hercule Poirot was Thomas Becket last night… and he was spellbinding. David Suchet, for it was he, has played Agatha Christie’s Poirot in over 70 episodes of the television series. But in TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, in an Orange Tree production in Richmond, he was Thomas Becket to the life, and death. David Suchet is a Christian, having read himself into Christianity in 1986 when he took up St Paul’s Letter to the Romans in his hotel bedroom and then was baptised into the Church of England. And it really tells. Eliot wrote the play in 1935 about the events of 1170, when Thomas Becket’s quarrel with Henry II ended with his murder in Canterbury Cathedral, but it didn’t feel distant… but real and vivid.
2:00 PM
David Suchet is spellbinding as Thomas Becket in ‘Murder in the Cathedral’
In Tom Littler’s production of ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, David Suchet’s portrayal of Thomas Becket becomes something more than acting, particularly when he ascends the pulpit to preach
Melanie McDonagh
Orange Tree Theatre
6 min read
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