The Orient Express, the train described as ‘Poetry on Wheels’ is stuck in a snow drift, trapping its passengers in a cold, dark claustrophobic warren of narrow corridors and sliding doors. The conductor is trying to contact a rescue team, the train company manager is trying to keep spirits high, and a world-famous detective is trying his best to keep his head down and get to London in a hurried response to an emergency telegram. But when a passenger is found brutally murdered in his bed within his private compartment, behind a locked door, it’s up to the famous Hercule Poirot to solve the seemingly impossible case.
‘Murder on the Orient Express’ is perhaps one of Agatha Christie’s most famous pieces, and one that has birthed many an adaptation. A classic ‘locked door’ drama, a whodunnit of the highest calibre, and a showcase of Christie’s skill to craft a mystery that brings together a plethora of eccentric, larger than life, yet somehow believable characters, many of which are hiding a secret behind their calm exteriors, in a setting that forces said secrets to unravel and invites the audience to play detective from the comfort of their seats. With her much-loved character Poirot, played here by Michael Maloney, taking centre stage with his little grey cells firing on all cylinders, this stage adaptation (directed by Lucy Bailey) brings the iconic story to life in opulent grandeur.
When a character is famous and, over the years, has been played by a multitude of household names, it can be difficult to take on the role and make it your own, and here that challenge falls at the feet of Michael Maloney. But with moustache waxed to perfection and eyes wide to the thrill of solving the case, he becomes his own style of Poirot. This is a man with a strong sense of morality, a man who’s seemingly sole purpose in life is to solve the crime and see that justice is served. He is serious, an ‘eyes on the prize’ detective who won’t rest until he cracks the case, and whilst this is his line of business, there is a real sense of excitement within Maloney’s portrayal, the idea that Poirot truly enjoys picking apart at the clues and piecing together the puzzle and there is frustration and anger underneath the calm as he pulls apart the lies and secrets of the suspects.
Fresh from staring in another Christie stage adaptation, ‘And Then There Were None’, Bob Barrett’s Monsieur Bouc is your classic swan, calm on top and paddling madly below. Everything aboard his famous train must be perfect, but when it’s not, things start to fall apart for him. One moment, he is drawn into the excitement and nervousness of solving the case as some sort of sidekick to Poirot whilst the next he is painting on a smile and gifting complimentary champagne to the passengers. I could go on and sing the praises of many of a cast member, then I fear this review could become as long as the time the Orient Express spent stranded in the snow, so instead let me pick out a few highlights. Debbie Chazen’s Princess Dragomiroff earns many a laugh as she teases and scold’s maid Greta (Rebecca Charles), whilst Christine Kavanagh as American Helen Hubbard fizzes with energy balancing comedy with drama as she bounces from flirting with Jean-Baptiste Fillon’s conductor Michel and winding up Samuel Ratchett (Simon Cotton) to frustrating Poirot with her responses to his questions.
As serious as the tales of Agatha Christie are, full of murder, lies and intrigue, I always feel that a true sign of her skill was her ability to interject comedy into the drama. There were many laugh out loud moments here, breaking the tension that kept the audience on the edge of their seats.
With the very nature of the play itself making the action destined to be played out in a confined place, a train stuck in a snow drift, it would be easy to assume that this production could become static and dull in terms of its staging, but Mike Britton’s clever design allows for regular movement and a steady flow. The train takes centre stage, modular and large, with ensemble members tasked with moving the pieces transforming the stage from the narrow train corridors complete with sliding doors, to a line of three neat little compartments, to the dining cart where Poirot holds his interviews, paired with projections that add to the telling of the numerous back stories. Flashbacks are used throughout to tie the narrative together neatly and join the dots, a method also used in the recent UK Tour of ‘And Then There Were None’, and dark topics are handled sensitively.
Overall, ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ is delicious fodder for a murder mystery fan, a further illustration of the talents of Christie. Years on from her death, in a year that we look forward to ‘The Mousetrap’ celebrating 30,000 performances in London’s West End and a few new Christie television adaptations lay in the pipeline, she remains, in my opinion, the greatest writer of whodunnit’s that ever was, and quite possibly ever will be.
Comments