Murder on the Orient Express
★★★☆☆ Reassuring mystery
Festival Theatre: Tue 22 – Sat 26 Oct 2024
Review by Hugh Simpson
The touring production of Murder on the Orient Express from Fiery Angel at the Festival Theatre is a reliable whodunnit, well performed and staged with commendable ambition. Not everything about the staging convinces, but the result is pleasing.
Agatha Christie’s celebrated 1934 novel, featuring the redoubtable Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, has famously been adapted for cinema more than once. This stage adaptation, by Ken Ludwig, does take some things from those versions, and features a slimmed-down cast of suspects, but remains pretty faithful to the source.
Michael Maloney as Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express. Pic: Fiery Angel.
The references to the political climate in 1930s Europe makes some of the story frighteningly timely, but essentially this is a piece of escapist entertainment that is oddly cosy despite the occasional blood-spattered corpse. The fact that – in contrast to the original – only those passengers in first class appear to be worth bothering about adds a further element of distance.
A production such as this will pretty much stand or fall on the efforts of its Poirot. Michael Maloney nails the character’s finicky self-obsession without succumbing to the excesses of camp that sometimes mar portrayals of the character. The accent is largely kept under control, and this is an unusually reflective, at times emotional Poirot, who anchors the whole production to great effect.
energy and commitment
The other characters are a selection of various ‘foreigners’, complete with those over-the-top accents that are thankfully rare in contemporary theatre. They are little more than a collection of types, but are all performed by the cast with the maximum of energy and commitment. Bob Barrett gives Poirot’s old friend the train owner a twinkling dependability.
A scene from Murder on the Orient Express. Pic: Fiery Angel.
Mila Carter, Debbie Chazen, Rebecca Charles, Jean-Baptiste Fillon, Christine Kavanagh, Paul Keating, Iniki Mariano and Rishi Rian attack the various suspects with gusto, with Kavanagh and Chazen particularly magnetic. Simon Cotton’s appalling businessman, who has ‘soon to be murdered’ written all over him from the time he steps on the stage, is a suitably revolting creation.
Lucy Bailey’s direction is always interesting, with Leah Hausman’s movement direction notably strong. The play opens with a series of tableaux that suggest it is going to be far removed from the average whodunnit in its staging.
overshadowed
However, the production is then overshadowed by what is its most noteworthy feature. Mike Britton’s design is utterly stunning, with a revolving stage playing host to train carriages in various configurations. This is visually arresting, but tends to limit the drama, especially when characters can only be partially seen in a train corridor.
A scene from Murder on the Orient Express. Pic: Fiery Angel.
Such claustrophobia can work superbly on film, but the theatre is another matter, especially when the closed space is a long way from the audience. The constant opening and closing, adding and subtracting of carriages, and removing parts of rooms, while highly impressive, proves distracting.
Mic Pool’s sound design and Oliver Fenwick’s lighting – often unusually sombre, with pinpoint illumination of parts of the railway carriage – are genuinely atmospheric.
The disparate elements of the production are not always in harmony. It sometimes appears unsure whether it wants to be a reassuringly familiar revival or a more daring piece of theatrical invention. However, as a crime drama it works pretty well on its own terms.
Running time: Two hours 15 minutes (including one interval).
Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson St, EH8 9FT
Tuesday 22 – Saturday 26 October 2024
Daily at 7.30 pm; Matinees Thu, Sat 2.30 pm
Details and tickets: Book here.
Touring until 2025 https://murderontheorientexpressplay.com.
A scene from Murder on the Orient Express. Pic: Fiery Angel.
ENDS
