A SUFFOLK playwright is today preparing to bring together some of the great names of detective fiction in her latest work.

Suzanne Hawkes, who lives in Felixstowe, whose plays have included the recently sold-out run on the subject of Ipswich son Thomas Wolsey, will present the fourth Harry’s Bar this month.

Entitled Watching The Detectives, it will include classic characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Philip Marlowe.

Suzanne said: “Harry’s Bar is an eclectic mix of cabaret and drama and I am delighted to be presenting the latest version to Felixstowe and Ipswich audiences for the fourth time.

“I am particularly interested in fictional and literary detectives and I thought it would be an interesting idea to bring them together under one roof in a theatrical production. There will be the usual mix of cabaret music, poetry and drama set in a relaxed atmosphere.”

Using a cast of six, two singers and a keyboard player, the characters are charged with solving a famous mystery.

Suzanne said: “These are some of the greatest characters of literary fiction who go head to head in order to solve one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time – the disappearance of Agatha Christie.”

Mrs Christie famously disappeared for 11 days in December 1926.

She was later found in a hotel in Harrogate using the name Theresa Neele claiming to suffer from amnesia.

The latest Harry’s Bar is one of several projects which Suzanne is currently working on.

Over the next few months she will be tackling two new plays on two new topics – Felixstowe’s much-loved and now closed Bartlet Hospital, and the composer Benjamin Britten, who lived in Aldeburgh.

“I really enjoy it and I am never short of ideas,” she said.

“Felixstowe and the sea continue to inspire me.

“I couldn’t live anywhere else.”

? Harry’s Bar takes place at The Orwell Hotel, Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, from November 20 to 22 and at the St Nicholas Centre, in Cutler Street, Ipswich, on November 23.

For tickets call the box office on 01394 279613 or pop into the Blurb Bookshop in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe.