Somehow, despite being dead for many years, new Agatha Christie murder mysteries continue to appear, as if from the grave….

Putting an Agatha Christie play in the season of a company exclusively producing murder mysteries is something like choosing a headstone. The question isn’t whether, or even necessarily when, but which one to choose.

In the case of Black Coffee, Vertigo Theatre’s latest Agatha Christie production, the play’s essential headstone is destined for one Sir Claude Amory (Jerry Callaghan), a scientist with a penchant for home-securing inventions and a particularly lucrative formula for explosives. After locking his family and one particularly suspicious visitor into his home, he calls the legendary Hercule Poirot (David LeReaney) to investigate the theft of the explosive formula. By the time Poirot arrives, however, a formula of a different kind has already sprung into action, and rather than investigating a theft, the beloved Belgian detective finds himself investigating a homicide.

Christie’s freshman foray into playwriting first produced Black Coffee in 1930. It’s a familiar tale of interlocking motives and features a first act piled high with red herrings and possible modus operandi, not the least of which includes the play’s titular drink. Sir Claude’s inventions even explicitly lock his guests in that tried-and-true place of revelation, the library, before they’re allowed to disperse. If the location and scheme of the drama is familiar, it’s also a frame that allows its actors to play with a set of archetypes that provide expansive, rather than restricted roles.

“I think part of what’s great about the murder mystery genre is that it’s heightened, so you can play a lot more,” says Jamie Konchak, who plays Sir Claude’s “strikingly modern” niece, Barbara. “You can paint with some broader strokes. [Barbara] is really bubbly and lively, and I can kind of infuse that with a really fun energy as opposed to feeling like I as the actor am limited or constrained in any way.”

Returning to the Veritgo stage for the first time since her role in 2004’s production of Green Fingers, Konchak says that the time between Black Coffee and one of her earlier professional productions has given her the freedom to make the kinds of big decisions that audiences look for in the genre. At the same time, the play’s sensibility, circa 1930, sometimes makes for a noticeable contrast between Christie’s etiquette-laden library scenes and the assumptions of the present day.

Barbara, for one, causes a stir by offering to put on “Ikey, Oh Crikey,” a burlesque song that’s quickly pooh-poohed by Barbara’s matronly foil, Caroline (Patricia Benedict). If the objection to what would now be considered practically innocuous party music isn’t enough, there’s the obvious disdain for foreigners, including Lucia Amory (Trenna Keating) and her half-Italian heritage.

“They reference Italians and foreigners, and that comes out of the war and mistrust,” says Konchak. “So that’s interesting to come up against in a play, I’m very uncomfortable in any way to references that could be construed as intolerance, but that was just part of their truth.”

Another essential truth in understanding the play is the sheer popular value of its brand of entertainment. Shows like Murder She Wrote and Matlock may be more closely modelled on Christie’s revolving cast of gumshoes, amateur and otherwise, but 21st century television includes its share as well. After all, CSI spinoffs and other procedural imitators still make up a hefty chunk of any contemporary schedule, with DNA evidence and close-up CGI shots standing in for the low-tech clues of Agatha Christie. It just goes to prove that, then as now, picking out our favourite mysteries, or the headstones that accompany their victims, is never an easy proposition.

“Murder mysteries, like Christie’s, were the sitcoms of the day,” notes Konchak. “Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes, you knew their little idiosyncrasies, you knew their quirks of character, and you could recognize those things, but in a whole new situation and a whole new cast of supporting characters. We love investing in those characters and figuring out how they’re going to deal with [a new] situation.”