CentralDramaFeaturedReview

Murder on the Orient Express – The Alexandra, Birmingham

Reviewer: Selwyn Knight

Writer: Agatha Christie

Adapter: Ken Ludwig

Director: Lucy Bailey

A stranded train. A brutal murder. Surely, the culprit must be among those sharing the train? Or was it maybe Trhthe shadowy intruder seen acting suspiciously? Hercule Poirot will need all of his skills to unravel this puzzle.

Ken Ludwig’s stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s eighth novel to feature her diminutive Belgian detective, Murder on the Orient Express, finds Poirot travelling on the famously luxurious sleeper. And, of course, an especially vicious murder occurs while the train is stranded in a snowdrift: objectionable American businessman, Samuel Ratchett is stabbed multiple times. The manager of the Wagons Lit company and friend of Poirot, M Bouc, is aboard and mindful of the impact a murder on his train could have on the company, he asks Poirot to investigate.

But this will prove to be one of Poirot’s most baffling cases as he finds clues and questions the disparate group thrown together in the First Class coach.

And the fact that most of the action is onboard a train provides the first potential problem to the adaptor and director: how to retain the almost claustrophobic feeling of being on board a stranded train while simultaneously enabling the action to flow and move from carriage to carriage. Ludwig has wisely omitted some characters and amalgamated others which simplifies matters and helps maintain the pace of the piece, while Lucy Bailey’s direction is sharp and focused. But it is, perhaps, the ingenious design from Mike Britton (set), Oliver Fenwick (lighting) Mic Poole (sound) and Ian William Galloway (video) that really helps drive the piece. In the first half, pieces of the carriage slide in and out seamlessly, revolving to show different views as we observe the events before and just after the murder. It’s all incredibly well done with video projections being an integral part of the whole, providing some background and also a sense of scale, for example, of the mammoth locomotive that hauls the train. And, of course, there’s Poirot, physically small, but somehow towering over the cast in lighting that will occasionally strike a chord with those who recall the TV Poirot adaptations starring David Suchet.

Indeed, it’s all so well done that it’s only well after one has left the theatre that one realises the absurdity of the plot.

Any production of a Poirot story stands and falls by the central performance of the dapper detective and Michael Maloney is more than equal to the task. More Suchet than Branagh, we see into Poirot’s thought processes and how he struggles with the conundrum with which he is faced. But there is also plenty of humour with Maloney’s performance never straying towards caricature. His accent may sometimes slip, but on the whole his performance should go down as a masterclass in portraying Christie’s egg-headed detective.

Maloney is supported by a strong ensemble supporting cast of potential suspects. Bob Barrett’s Bouc is wonderfully comedic. The verbal sparring between Debbie Chazen’s Princess Draogomiroff and her companion, Greta Ohlsson (Rebecca Charles) is quite delicious, while Iniki Mariano’s Mary Debenham is the epitome of a well-brought-up English girl. Christine Kavanagh brings bluster to oft-divorced Helen Hubbard while Rishi Rian’s colonel is suitably uptight.

Bailey ensures that Samuel Ratchett (Simon Cotton) is fully fleshed out: he could so easily be played two-dimensionally, but Cotton avoids that even as he shows us Ratchett’s unpleasant side.

This adaptation is a triumph, with all the moving parts – and there are many, both literally and metaphorically – working seamlessly together to create an outstanding example of the genre.

Runs until 1 February 2025 and on tour

The Reviews Hub Score

Outstanding example of the genre

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The Reviews Hub - Central

The Central team is under the editorship of Selwyn Knight. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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One Comment

  1. The stage designs and execution of the the sets was imaginative and fantastic we were really impressed. However the acting did not match, Michael Maloney was obviously playing for laughs which did not always succeed and the over the top theatrics of Bob Barrett was cringeworthy.
    It is a parody of Agatha Christies work which is fine but this should be made clear.
    The absurdity of the plot as your reviewer states is due to a number of the characters from the original book not being in this production. The premise of revenge/justice is that it was carried out by 12 (a jury) but lack of characters meant there were only 8 stabbings. The self inflicted shooting is blatantly lifted from another of Christies books. Disappointing , embarrassing dumbed down theatre I’m afraid.

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