Death on the Nile (touring) ★★★★★
A dazzling adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s thorniest murder mysteries, ‘Death on the Nile’, continues its UK tour
Mes amis!
Let us commence in this matter as indeed Monsieur Poirot has: at the end. Having reached a conclusion to the turbulent affairs that have taken place. Looking backwards.
Let us do the same. For you know that Inspecteur Le Recs is never wrong. Having considered the evidence as set before us, we can say with certainty….
Death on the Nile is an Agatha Christie adaptation, parfait! Magnifique! Superbe!
Death on the Nile is one of Christie’s most heavily populated novels – twenty-plus characters (including three victims and two detectives) – and an absolute zinger of a plot. Reading a murder mystery novel, the reader is afforded the option of going back, re-reading paragraphs, chapters even, to wallow in the Dame Agatha’s sublimely plotted puzzles, red herrings, clues, and wonderful legerdemain. Theatre audiences need to follow the narrative as it unfolds with no recourse to re-examining what has transpired. Therefore, the challenge of the adaptor, Ken Ludwig, and the director, the estimable Lucy Bailey, is to simplify the complexity without robbing the tale of its narrative drive and the mystery of its… mystery.
It also occurs the question: how do you deliver a famous murder mystery to an audience, many of whom will already know the story and indeed the solution? What this version, produced by Edward Snape’s Fiery Angel, who delivered the excellent stage adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, does so well is give enough authenticity to Dame Agatha’s original while mixing it up enough so it feels fresh and unpredictable. Wisely, the novel’s extensive dramatis personae are compressed into a smaller but still impressively large cast of possible suspects. Some characters are cut completely, with new ones introduced, bringing changed relationships. And distracting subplots are equally culled with ruthless efficiency, leaving a core story that is rich and compelling.
What makes Death on the Nile such a highly-rated novel is that, in the late 30s, Christie had reached something of a crossroads as a writer. Hugely successful as a mystery writer, she was beginning to transform from creating (mostly) light-hearted puzzle mysteries to something more complex and emotionally rewarding. And at the heart of the story is a love triangle whose undercurrents are as deep and dangerous as the Nile itself. Linnet Ridgeway is young, beautiful and rich. She’s the girl who has everything. And unexpectedly she now has her best friend’s ex-fiancé as her new husband. As she and Simon Doyle honeymoon in Egypt, the spurned Jacqueline de Bellefort is not going to be ignored. In fact, she is going to follow the newlyweds wherever they go, never giving them a moment’s peace, reminding the picture-perfect couple how Simon has done her wrong, and threatening that there will be a price to pay for taking her happiness away. While some in the audience know how this will play out from the various screen adaptations (the wonderful 1978 Peter Ustinov film, the slightly over-hurried 2004 David Suchet TV film or the heinous 2022 Kenneth Branagh misfire that was a crime against Christie), by focusing so heavily on the toxic lovers trio, it lends this adaptation a darker passion and a weight of feeling that will stay with an audience after the mystery itself is solved.
Libby Alexandra-Cooper, in a remarkable professional theatre debut as Linnet Ridgeway, is not merely beautiful – she oozes charisma and presence. You simply cannot take your eyes off her. Aided and abetted by some truly jaw-dropping gowns by designer Mike Britton, she is literally the champagne golden girl. Enough champagne gold to fill the Nile… Nye Occomore alternates between handsome and slippery with appropriate ease, while still registering the choppy waters into which his Simon Doyle has sailed. As the third wheel who is decidedly going off the rails, Esme Hough manages Jackie’s volatility credibly without it ever lurching into the overstated. Her arrival on the Karnak is delivered with such malicious aplomb, you can feel a frisson ripple through the theatre. Any scenes with them in a room together, the electricity is so palpable you want to keep your distance, as those sparks are going to fly and someone will get burned.
In many ways, this production allows them to dominate proceedings, leaving relatively slim pickings for the fellow passengers. The fragrant Salome Otterbourne, for instance, is far less of a grotesque than her usual depiction. In fact, in Glynis Barber‘s capable hands, she’s fun and attractive. Ditching her career as a crime writer (her last book sold 48 copies), she’s decided to become an actress. Shorn of her secret drinking and obsession with sex, there’s less for Barber to play with, but she lands every comedic line that she’s given – and some that she has not. She has such ease on stage; you yearn for her to be given more business.
Of course, there is no Death on the Nile without Poirot. Unless it’s Agatha Christie’s own little-known and highly unsuccessful 1944 stage adaptation, Murder on the Nile,where she ditched Poirot for a sleuthing canon as she was fed up with seeing her Belgian detective played badly on the boards. No such worries here. Mark Hadfield is a joy as Poirot. With the bonhomie of Ustinov as the nearest comparison, he is filled with Gallic – sorry, Belgique – charm and a winning playfulness. He breaks the fourth wall at times to confide in the audience. “He was good, your Shakespeare,” he suggests with a twinkle, “but he was no Agatha Christie.” When he comes to reveal the big whodunnit – a speech and a feat of memory that is, ahem, Herculean – he ends with such a histrionic flourish the audience cannot help but give him a round of applause.
Plaudits too are richly deserved for the other star of the show: the set. In a novel where geography plays such a part (will say no more than that in case of spoilers) Britton’s two-tiered steamer of sliding, slatted wooden doors, which constantly reverse perspective inwards and outward, is a thing of beauty. Lit persuasively, and yes, seductively, by Oliver Fenwick, it’s so decadent that even with a killer on the loose, you’d take your chances rather than disembark. As well as style, it offers function, providing its own reveals as well as concealment. A scene where Linnet lies in bed half-dreaming, half awake and aware of the threat to her life is realised with such surreal, threatening menace, it guarantees you’ll go into the interval reeling. A real coup de théâtre, as they say in France…and Belgium, naturellement.
Are there any quibbles? Occasionally, some of the dialogue is a little on the nose. There’s also a little bit of tell, not show, presumably to keep the pacing up – a job which director Lucy Bailey more than masters. Tonally, this production shifts between the dark and the light, the intense and the relief and especially comedy and tragedy. It’s a perilous line, but they pull it off, the extremes enhancing their opposite rather than undermining them. Like the very best Christie, it keeps you engaged and the little grey cells fired up. It’s hard to imagine Death on the Nile arriving on stage in any way more shipshape than this.
A killer adaptation in every sense ★★★★★ 5 stars
Death on the Nile Tickets
Death on the Nile runs at York Grand Opera House until 7 March and then continues on an extensive UK tour
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