Audience members who experienced Ken Ludwig’s take on Murder on the Orient Express at the Theatre Royal last spring will discover his staging of Death on the Nile provides an invigorating shift in setting.
The show embraces this link between the two works.
When boarding the steamship, Colonel Race warns Hercule Poirot that he wants no further killings, referencing their earlier journey aboard the Orient Express and noting that mortality seems to accompany Poirot wherever he goes.
The show mixes substantial humour with an understanding of murder mystery conventions and their inherent ridiculousness.
In Death on the Nile, wealthy heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Libby Alexandra-Cooper) and her husband Simon Doyle (Nye Occomore) are enjoying their honeymoon aboard a Nile cruise when she is murdered. The responsibility falls to Poirot, who was simply hoping for a holiday without killings, to determine who is responsible.
Those acquainted with Christie’s novels will notice the plot has been compressed—various characters have been modified, and certain additional deaths have been removed—and in this adaptation the cruise vessel is transporting an ancient Egyptian coffin from the British Museum back to Egypt.
After the difficulties of staging Murder on the Orient Express, this production’s design, while somewhat less elaborate, remains impressive.
The two-level set depicting the upper and lower decks works effectively, and louvred blinds wash the audience in the warmth of an Egyptian sunset.
Visually, this production shines brilliantly. The opening sequence is a visual treat. The gleaming gold of the coffin, ancient Egyptian carvings lit by fire, and Linnet glittering like an award trophy in one of several magnificent dresses combine for an especially memorable moment.
The coffin proves equally impactful in a dramatic sequence designed to replace the Abu Simbel section from the novel.
Alexandra-Cooper demands attention as Linnet, nicely complemented by Esme Hough’s sharp rendering of her former best friend Jacqueline De Bellefort.
Howard Gossington provides amusing work as the anxious Egyptologist Atticus Praed, as does Glynis Barber as the overbearing and loud novelist Salome Otterbourne.
Last year, Michael Maloney injected somewhat more liveliness into his portrayal of Poirot than those of us devoted to David Suchet’s interpretation might anticipate. Mark Hadfield continues this approach with an exuberant, dynamic performance as the Belgian detective.
This production firmly establishes Poirot and Colonel Race (Rob Barrett) as a comic duo of contrasting heights, which proves mostly entertaining—even if occasionally rather theatrical.
The swift revelation sequence showcases Hadfield at his best, wonderfully complemented by a series of stylish flashbacks enacted behind him—though the cheerful little dance at the conclusion could have been omitted.
Certain jokes and rather evident double meanings felt superfluous, yet the production ends grimly with a potent resolution.
Anticipate contrast and complexity then in this absorbing staging of one of the Queen of Crime’s most cherished mysteries.