Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (touring) ★★★★★

Anyone attempting to put Agatha Christie’s 91-year-old classic, Murder on the Orient Express, on stage faces as many questions to solve as her curious Belgian sleuth.

Christie’s 1934 novel, like most of her book, is a whodunnit. Perhaps the most fiendishly plotted of her career! It’s a story so compelling – the most glamorous train, international passengers living in close quarters, an unexpected snow storm, the brutal murder of one of the passengers, multiple clues, even more alibis and only the world’s most famous detective to solve the mystery – that the book was made into a brilliant star-studded movie directed by Sidney Lumet and was nominated for six Oscars. It has been subsequently been adapted in 2017 for the big screen by Kenneth Branagh. A feature-length version was included in ITV’s hugely-popular Poirot series in 2010. So any adaptor for the stage will be tasked with the issue that most of the audience going into the theatre will know the story and indeed whodunnit!

What Ken Ludwig‘s script does so brilliantly from the off is to introduce some changes so you are never entirely surefooted that you know where this interpretation is going. Five familiar characters are dropped: Dr Constantine, Edward Masterman and Antonio Foscarelli without mention, Count Andrenyi is elsewhere and Hildegarde Schmidt is ill so missing that infamous rail trip. As well as streamlining the mystery, by allocating various roles to different characters the familiar becomes unfamiliar. And without giving too much away, Ludwig’s adaptation veers away from the regular Christie plot, providing an explosive, suprise ending to the first act with an unexpected body on the floor!

The next challenge for a stage adaptation is the Great Detective himself. Albert Finney’s wildly-eccentric take, Kenneth Branagh’s action-orientated interpretation and David Suchet’s quirky, urbane portrayal of Hercule Poirot all cast a long shadow for anyone taking on the part. Fortunately, this touring production has cast the mighty Michael Maloney in the pivotal role. While there are little nods within his performance to those who came before, his Poirot grows in stature as he puts his own imprint on the role. There is an appropriate theatricality to his Belgian investigator. At times, there is a comedic, even slapstick, spin to his Hercule which can disappear in the blink of an eye to reveal that fearsome mind. Addressing the audience directly at the start, he promises the “greatest case of my career”, an odyssey of deception and intriguingly one that continues to keep him awake at night. Casually peppering his obsevations with Shakespearean quotes, there is weight and heft to his performance. By the time he gathers the suspects together to unravel the mystery and accuse the guilty, such is Maloney’s mastery of the stage, there is pindrop silence as the audience hangs on his every word.

Equally impressive are the troupe of seasoned actors assembled for this UK touring production. Paul Keating is brilliantly mercurial as Hector McQueen, switching between twitchy nervousness and delicious camp. Whether the incorrigible Debbie Chazen as the Princess Dragomiroff did or did not commit the murder, she is certainly guilty of theft, stealing every scene she is in. And Christine Kavanagh brings many levels and complexity to attention-demanding Helen Hubbard.

Director Lucy Bailey, who is no stranger to Christie adaptations with And Then There Were None and Witness for the Prosecution already under her belt, musters some dazzling theatrical moments. From Poirot’s dramatic entrance, to the murder of Daisy Armstrong hanging over procedings, from the discovery of the murder to the Belgian detective setting about the gathered suspects, the staging is nothing short of thrilling.

Putting a train onstage is a challenge. One that is the epitome of glamorous travel as the Orient Express offers, a bigger challenge. And to make it both impressive and claustrophic is truly a test for the little grey cells. But designer Mike Britton, aided and abetted by some evocative lighting from Oliver Fenwick and judicious video projections from Ian William Galloway, delivers a first-class evocation of this famed setting. The sense of opulence but also confinement are perfectly realised by a carriage on a revolving stage, which then breaks into sections in ways as unexpected as the show’s twists and turns. As an audience, the design alters your perspective constantly, between an view of the overall goings on and then right into the heart of the action.

What this production does so well is an incredible balancing act. It takes a very well-known story and makes it fresh and intriguing. It transfers something cinematic to the stage without losing its scale or intimacy. It manages the fun and froth of a classic whodunnit but lands a surprising emotional weight to the consequences of the crime. And delivers a Poirot at his most confident in his detective skills but with a growing doubt in his own moral compass. If this superlative touring production of Murder on the Orient Express alights at a theatre near you, dare we say… Kill for a ticket!