Following the sell-out tour of the best-selling crime novel of all time, And Then There Were None, Fiery Angel and director Lucy Bailey (Witness for the Prosecution, And Then There Were None, The Other Boleyn Girl) takes Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of another Agatha Christie classic on tour.
Multi-award-winner Ludwig (Crazy for You; Lend Me A Tenor) has cut, embellished and rewritten for a surprising gently humorous and pleasant tongue-in-cheek evening of murder and trickery.
The perennial Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (Truly Madly Deeply, Magpie Murder, Peer Gynt’s Michael Maloney) is in something of a low mood with his latest case having resulted in the suicide of his suspect. Happening on an old friend, Monsieur Bouc (Bob Barrett: And Then There Were None, Holby City’s Sacha Levy) in an Istanbul restaurant, he secures a first-class ticket home on the famed Orient Express, which is surprisingly full with a clutch of larger-than-life, stereotypical characters.
With his criminal antennae a-twitching and leetle grey cells a-buzzing, the dapper and somewhat celebrity-enjoying Poirot foresees trouble ahead as the guests embark on a snowy journey. He is, of course, correct.
There is odd couple Debbie Chazen (Romeo and Juliet, The Globe) as the indominable Princess Dragomiroff, whose help for the journey is the devout, flappable missionary Greta (Rebecca Charles: Murder in the Dark, The Dresser); Rishi Rian (Ridley) is the short-tempered Colonel and Mila Carter (who is a recent graduate) is a stunning, multi-faceted Countess Elena Andreyni.
Simon Cotton (The Rise of the Krays and The Fall of the Krays, The Bodyguard) is fur-clad tycoon / thug Samuel Ratchett whose assistant is Metrosexuality’s Dean Paul Keatin, Jean-Baptiste Fillon (Masters of the Air) is train guard Michel, Christine Kavanagh (An Inspector Calls) makes the absolute most of many of the best lines as chaos-loving Helen Hubbard, while Iniki Mariano (George) plays nervous Mary Debenham and Alex Stedman the haughty Head Waiter.
A very bloody murder aboard a drift-halted train with fragments of a burnt threatening letter evoking the death of young hostage Daisy Armstrong, no footsteps in the snow to show the perpetrator has left the site and, with everyone having an alibi, Poirot pulls the threads to uncover a who-did-it that challenges his values.
Mike Britton’s set is a triumph. A rotating stage allows for depth in the Turkish restaurant as the characters are introduced and Poirot eavesdrops, and spins the train to allow glimpses of life aboard the eponymous train: all elegant polished mahogany, magnificent Edwardian detail and first-class quarters.
Although the manhandling of the carriages is a tad clunky at times, the bedtime vignettes and murder scene viewings, tight corridor chats and rear platform canoodling are beautifully facilitated.
Ian William Galloway’s black and white video design, projected full-width above the action, chillingly fills in the US kidnap and portrays the train in all its glory, the incessant wheel turning and the snow. Excellent.
Bailey’s direction is nicely paced to keep the attention, and plenty of clues and red herrings are scattered for the audience detectives to take a punt on the outcome.
Touring until April 2025.