Les élèves de première et Terminale LLCER anglais ont assisté au spectacle Lady Agatha au théâtre Armand le 15 mars 2024. Ce spectacle d'une très grande qualité a permis aux élèves d'aborder la vie et l'oeuvre de l'écrivain Agatha Christie et de son célèbre détective, Hercule Poirot.  Ils vous présentent leur travail ici en anglais.

March 15th, 2024 : LADY AGATHA by Cristos Mitropoulos and Ali Bougheraba

As students of both English literature classes (LLCE anglaise 1ère and Terminale), on Friday March 15th, 2024 we all went to the Armand theatre to watch a play entitled Lady Agatha, based on Agatha Christie’s life.
The fabulous actors were: Camille Favre-Bulle, Tatiana Goussef, Marie-Aline Thomassin, Matthieu Brugot, Erwan Creignou and Léo Guillaume. This play directed by Cristos Mitropoulos and Ali Bougheraba lasted 2 hours and was produced by the Ki M’aime Me Suive theatre company.
This play was really interesting because the setting was always moving. Indeed, the actors themselves changed the backdrop in front of the audience each time they wanted to convey a change of time or place. From my standpoint, it was amazing and a real tour de force and accomplishment as they could change clothes and outfits just with a flick of the wrist. What struck us is that each and every actor was able to play the role of different characters at the same time.
We went through all the emotions due to fluidity of their performance. What’s more, it was quite amusing and poetic.
During the whole show, Agatha keeps repeating that she wanted to be a Lady, but she couldn’t be because of her social position. However, thanks to her hard work and the impact of her writings in the world she was able to earn the title of Lady and was thanked by the Queen of England.
I personally loved the way the characters changed their roles throughout the play, it was quite funny.

(Maélia C. T07)

MY IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE PLAY:

First of all, seeing the Play Lady Agatha was a beautiful experience that I really enjoyed. I personally loved how the play was set and the way actors were playing. In my opinion, this play was a means to bring together Agatha Christie and her readers. It was a compelling moment of joy and it enabled to understand more about Agatha Christie’s life.
Besides, the actors’ performances seemed so real, even though they were all playing different characters that it made the play way more interesting than it already was. In the course of the play, we were so moved by different emotions that it made the time passed so quickly. The whole cast of the play made an amazing work to give the audience a lot of pleasure. It was an audience full of laughter and happiness and at the end everyone was thankful for this breath-taking representation. (Lana A T06)

In my opinion, the play Lady Agatha was very interesting as it allowed us to learn a lot of information about Agatha Christie’s life. Indeed, the play epitomizes her life from childhood to adulthood. In addition, it depicts all the events that occurred during the childhood of the main character. What it is striking is that the play displays her life even during the war, which shows how harsh and difficult her life happened to be. Actually, it’s very important to know and understand the life of the famous writer: Agatha Christie.
Besides, I found the work very touching because the viewers saw her life in a very deep and personal way. Lady Agatha demonstrates first, the death of her father and then, of her mother. The characters use a powerful and poignant mean to display emotions but they also try to make us laugh. Indeed, the play is also humorous and makes the audiences enjoy all along. We were all laughing out loud. It was really entertaining. From my standpoint, Lady Agatha was definitely a compelling play that was both interesting and fascinating. I had great fun watching it! (Celeste B T06)

FOLLOW UP WORK: LEARN MORE ABOUT AGATHA CHRISTIE

HER BIOGRAPHY

We all know the English writer Agatha Christie due to her well-known detective novels and characters such as Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple but what is the story of the woman behind these worldwide known works?
This famous author, born on September 15th, 1890 under the name of Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, died on January 12th,1976. When she died she was known as Lady Mallowan, Agatha Christie or even “the Queen of Mystery” because she was acknowledged by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971 with the status of Dame which she yearned for all her life. She began her life in a wealthy upper middle-class family in Torquay and remained home-schooled. She got
married twice, the first time was with Archibald Christie in 1914 with whom she had a child named Rosalind.
Unfortunately, they had their divorce in 1928. She met and wedded Max Mallowan, an archaeologist in 1930. Agatha Christie had a hard time becoming an author since her first works faced several rejections. That did not last long though as she eventually became well-known in 1920 with her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles in which Hercule Poirot, one of her most celebrated character, was put in the spotlight. She was known as “the Queen of Crimes” due to her detailed and compelling stories and it is actually her own personal experiences that helped her. As a matter of fact, regarding the poisons in her works, she drew her inspiration from the knowledge she got while serving as a nurse during the two world wars. Moreover, owing to the occupation of her second husband who was an archaeologist, she could grab much information for her detective novels particularly in Death on the Nile,1937. Her writings won numerous awards among which the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award or the Edgar Award both in 1955 and was even voted posthumously as the best crime writer and her novel The murder of Roger Ackroyd as the best crime novel in 2013.

Agatha Christie’s most celebrated characters:

Hercule Poirot:

Agatha Christie’s most celebrated character is Hercule Poirot, an enigmatic Belgian detective. He and his skills are put in the spotlight in no less than 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975. The celebrated Hercule Poirot was born in Belgium, his birthday remains unknown though, which gives him a timeless feature. He is a former police officer who, after being injured during the First World War, was sent to England. It was in the little town of Styles St Mary that Agatha Christie set the scene of Hercule Poirot’s first acknowledged investigation. Even though, his first solved mysteries were not well paid right away but he steadily became famous and quite wealthy.
He has been embodied by numerous actors through time such as Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, David Suchet and Kenneth Branagh highlighting his renown.

David Suchet,

Kenneth Branagh, Murder on the Orient Express

Miss Marple:

Jane Marple, known as “Miss Marple” and “armchair detective” is an elderly and sharp detective made up by Agatha Christie. She is put forward as the heroine in a dozen of novels such as A murder is Announced. She mostly remained in a remote and imaginary town called St Mary Mead except in the Caribbean Mystery (1964) in which she went to another imaginary place, Saint Honoré. Miss Marple’s intuition and knowledge of the human nature turn out to be the key of her numerous successes so much so that her motto is “the worst is so often true”.

  Joan Hickson, The BBC TV show

(Flora B T07)