Review: MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, Chichester Festival Theatre
Photo credit: Johan Persson
Hercule Poirot remains one of the best known and loved fictional detectives of all time, and Chichester Festival Theatre’s current production of Murder on the Orient Express pays great homage to the Belgian Sleuth.
Double Olivier Award-winner Henry Goodman does an incredible job of bringing life to the character, his mannerisms, accent and frequent lapses into French portray the Investigator as a charming, slightly cheeky genius.
Goodman is supported by a very strong cast, Sara Stewart as Helen Hubbard draws the eye in every scene she features in as well as providing some of the more comical moments of the show. Forceful performances from Laura Rogers as Countess Andrenyi and Joanna McCallum as Princess Dragomiroff have the audience feeling both affection and suspicion in equal measures!
The set designed by Robert Jones is beautiful, with the imposing front end of the steam engine visible upstage throughout most of the narrative. Clever use of smaller moving pieces of scenery create the slightly cramped feeling of being onboard a train, in the dining car, the cabins or the lounge area. Very slow rotation of the large revolve gives the feeling of constant motion, so that even when the train is stuck in the snow drift, we are aware of the characters stories moving onwards. The gently falling snow and the atmospheric lighting by Mark Henderson, add to the sense of hopeless desolation that the occupants of the Orient Express find themselves in.
The adaptation itself is sensational. The success of The Mousetrap and Witness for the Prosecution prove that Agatha Christies work lends itself to successful stage adaptations, and Murder on the Orient Express is no exception. A note in the programme points out that Christie herself considered adapting the story for stage, but never wrote the script. Ken Ludwig states that one of the key creative decisions was cutting down the number of suspects that were in the original novel, but nothing is lost in this reduction, and we are therefore granted more time to get to know each of the passengers.
The show finishes by posing a moral dilemma for Poirot (no spoilers!). We, the audience, are presented with both sides of the argument, before hearing the detectives eventual decision. Ending with this ethical conundrum adds another dimension to the production, reminding us that the line between good and bad, right and wrong isn’t always clear.
Ken Ludwig’s exquisite adaptation has the perfect balance of mystery, intrigue and drama, and more than does justice to Christies’ thrilling classic.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Sarah Brown
Murder on The Orient Express runs until 4 June, with tickets are available here.