The Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, is back on the Vertigo stage, with a classic Murder on the Orient Express. This play centers on detective Hercule Poirot, made famous by Christie in 33 novels, 50 short stories and 2 plays, published between 1920 and 1975. This play is adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Jovanni Sy and is very complicated. This is a big cast with double stories, some artists play two characters, and everyone has various accents, backgrounds and stories. It’s a good thing Poirot can keep everything straight because it’s a bit hard for the audience to keep it all in line.
The play opens to a scene that is told only in projections and voice overs. Something happens to a little girl, after her parents put her to bed. After this scene, we are introduced to Poirot (Haysam Kadri) who is in Istanbul and needs to board the Orient Express to take him to London. The train is full but his good friend Monsieur Bouc (Mike Tan) who owns the train has managed to get him a sleeping compartment. Poirot doesn’t get much sleep as there are so many characters on this journey including the insufferable Mrs. Hubbard (Elinor Holt), and Russian Princess Dragomiroff (Elizabeth Stepkowski-Tarhan) who spends a lot of her time looking after Greta Ohlsson (Lara Schmitz), a Swedish missionary who is traveling with the Princess. There is the Countess Andrenyi (Sarah Roa) who is also a physician and Samuel Ratchett (Stafford Perry) who is rough and aggressive towards the Countess. Samuel’s secretary Hector MacQueen (Alexander Ariate) is concerned about Ratchett because he keeps receiving threatening letters. Rounding out the people on the train is Colonel Arbuthnot (Perry) who is traveling with Mary Debenham (Jesse Del Fierro) and the conductor Michel (Luigi Riscaldino).
All these characters are suspects in the murder of Ratchett, who dies in the middle of the night by stabbing. Eight stab wounds to be exact, and Poirot is investigating, gathering evidence and questioning each suspect for their alibi.
As the pieces come together for Poirot and the audience, it is evident that there is one unifying story amongst all the passengers. Christie’s narrative is as much a murder mystery as it is an examination of different characters and their unique dynamic when they are all put in a room.
Every personality is exaggerated. Holt’s Mrs. Hubbard is unbearable, prejudiced, and her voice is like nails on a chalkboard. She is demanding and unreasonable, and Holt is almost too good at turning up the dial on the character so it’s set to be excruciatingly annoying. Equally, Schmitz’s Ohlsson is over the top, but in the opposite direction. Her meekness is overdone and her devotion is almost manic. It makes Stepkowski-Tarhan’s Princess look relatively calm and highlights the steadiness in Ariate’s MacQueen and Riscaldino’s Michel. Perry is dangerous and edgy as Ratchett, and so mild as Arbuthnot. His ability to switch accents and characters is fine work, but there is no chemistry between him and Fierro, and the audience should feel their romance sizzle on stage. There is also supposed to be chemistry between Kadri and Roa, but that coupling is hard to buy into as well. Both Roa and Fierro have sweet character roles, balancing out the edginess of other characters.
The challenge with Murder on the Orient Expressis that everyone is playing at playing someone. Everyone is lying or taking on a role. It makes it incredibly challenging for the large cast, not to mention the different accents that everyone has to master.
It’s all performed in a really small space designed by Scott Reid, with each train compartment spanning the stage and projection design filling in the blanks in the narrative, including the pre-story and the snow that has trapped the passengers on the train. Jonathan Kim’s lighting design dials up the tension in the play, utilizing the house lights as well. Andrew Blizzard’s sound design and original composition adds layers to the narrative in combination with Kim’s lighting design. The costume design by April Viczko has Poirot’s signature moustache and Arbuthnot’s sideburns looking quite authentic.
Jovanni Sy has directed a complex narrative and staging of Murder on the Orient Express. It is engaging and fun, though quite complicated. You might not follow all the way through, but the various characters will keep you entertained throughout.
Vertigo Theatre’s Murder on the Orient Express runs until December 17th. More information is available online.