Purlieu with Poirot: David Suchet : Poriot and More: A Retrospective

What a treat — not only have I heard an interview with David Suchet, but participated in a how to speak and act Shakespeare class and witnessed his amazing voice throwing skills as he navigates finding Poirot’s voice. Amazingly he can move his voice from chest to throat to nose, to somewhere in his brain, behind the eyes — whilst doing a mixture of Flemish and French accents!!!!

Go to this show and you will also learn the secret of why David’s Lady Bracknell was more shocked by the location of the handbag, than the handbag itself.

Really opened Shakespeare’s texts up for me — there are five secrets that Shakespeare puts into his language that gives actors the key to what is going on, including perhaps Shylock not being anti-Semitic after all. David Suchet was fascinating on the background to these characters — he does huge amounts of research (93 notes for Poirot!) and interestingly pointed out that Jewish people were banished officially from England when Shakespeare from writing, but he puts some humanising words into his character’s mouth. Also what to do when members of the public relate to you as Poirot and how to get in and out of character.

Honest, fun and interactive! My only caution is be careful where you sit — I was right up in the back of gods in the cheap seats and I had to lean forward to see the great man speaking — not sure if it was wearing a mask for a long time — including long, stuffy train journeys, rushing around lost beforehand (thanks Google Maps!) or just very steep balcony, but felt very dizzy and had sensations of vertigo afterwards.