Sep 9

Sep 9 Murder on the Orient Express at Flat Rock Playhouse

Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s best known mystery novels for good reason: It’s packed full of great characters, most of them suspects in the titular crime, and the solution is among her most creative. After two feature films and several TV adaptations, I’m not sure how many people there are left to be surprised by the ending, but it really doesn’t matter. Just as I rewatch Sidney Lumet’s lavish, star-studded 1974 movie version now and again, revisiting the story in this Flat Rock production was a pleasure, a new encounter with a favorite tale, reimagined for the stage.

As always with Flat Rock, the casting is superb, with two Playhouse newcomers in lead roles: Stephen Rattazzi is Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, less eccentric than the character is usually depicted and, happily, funnier. Prolific playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor, Crazy for You) salted his 2017 script lightly with added humor, giving the audience some relief from the intensity of the investigation of the late-night killing of one Samuel Ratchett, an American businessman of dubious connections. and Rattazzi’s dry delivery is spot on.

Scenes from *Murder on the Orient Express* at Flat Rock Playhouse, featuring cast members (from left) Laura Jordan, Scott Treadway, Betsy Bisson, Maddie Franke, and Steven Rattazzi.

Another newbie, Laura Jordan, is the irrepressible Helen Hubbard, a juicy part played at the movies by Lauren Bacall and (in Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 version) Michelle Pfeiffer. Jordan’s Mrs. Hubbard is a loud, loquacious Minnesotan, and Jordan amps her up, stealing many of the scenes she’s in, especially during the final “reveal,” when she challenges Poirot. We can only hope Jordan’s inaugural train trip will not be her last stopover at Flat Rock.

The original novel offers a dozen suspects, which would be something of a crowd in any stage set representing even the most lavish train car, especially when you add in Poirot and his friend Monsieur Bouc, the head of the train company, whose role in the story is to be always on the edge of hysteria and quick to embrace any wrong answer. (It’s a part perfect for Scott Treadway, who turns Bouc’s French accent into just another tool for our amusement.) To thin the herd, Ludwig reduces the number of suspects to eight, dropping some of the less memorable characters and compositing a couple of those remaining. Countess Elena (Maddie Franke), for example, is relieved of her husband’s company and turned into a former medical student, dispensing with the need for an onboard physician and allowing for some highly entertaining banter between Elena and Poirot, which both Rattazi and Franke lean into with aplomb.

A scene from *Murder on the Orient Express* at Flat Rock Playhouse, featuring cast members Betsy Bisson (left) and Amanda Tong.

Also gone is the nurse to exiled Russian royal Princess Natalya (the formidable Betsy Bisson). Instead, Swedish missionary Greta (Amanda Tong) serves as the Princess’s traveling companion, a role that leans slightly to the comic rather than the sympathetic, a balance Tong ably manipulates to both effects. (The other two missing characters I challenge you to name without the help I had from Google.)

A scene from *Murder on the Orient Express* at Flat Rock Playhouse, featuring cast member Keith Rubin as Samuel Ratchett.

The cast of 10 still manages to evoke 12 characters, as Keith Rubin plays both the brash Ratchett and Col. Arbuthnot, a tall Scottish army officer with a short temper. Each is distinct and memorable; it wasn’t until my husband reminded me on the way home that I remembered they were played by the same actor. Similarly, Matt Wade has a small role as a humorously haughty waiter before settling comfortably into his main part, the reliable train conductor Michel. Galloway Stevens plays Ratchett’s much-put-upon secretary, a character Ludwig does little with but that Stevens makes distinct. On the other hand, Ludwig gives mousy Mary Debenham (Jessica Mosher) an extra twist to close Act One, allowing Mosher to show off more than Mary’s usual nervous romance with the colonel.

The crowd behind the scenes are more than just the usual suspects, with guest director Reggie Law (last year’s hilarious Boeing-Boeing) at the helm. Law keeps the plot steaming away—even if the train is stranded in the snowy Yugoslav mountains—and makes great use of the marvelous set by Dennis C. Mauldin (which deserves its own ovation). The performance we saw stalled a couple times, but it’s hard to say whether it was someone going up on their lines for a moment or just an over-extended dramatic pause; in either case, things got moving again in short order. Also adding to the experience are helpful, beautifully designed projections by Clara Ashe-Moore and Dasia Gregg, underscoring information important to solving the mystery without overwhelming the actors onstage.

A scene from *Murder on the Orient Express* at Flat Rock Playhouse, featuring cast members (from left) Matt Wade, Laura Jordan, Steven Rattazzi, Jessica Mosher, Scott Treadway, and Keith Rubin (as Col. Arbuthnot).

The play is set in 1934, the year Christie published it, a setting evoked not just by the sets (and moral concerns) but also by the fine costumes by Tim Barham. Praise is also owed to lighting designers Dominic DeSalvio and Montana Kern and sound designer Kurt Davis, who keep us grounded in the time of day and the tension of the moment and work together in the final reveal scene to produce impressive “flashbacks” without any glitzy electronic effects.

Still, the focus remains on Christie’s story, and her great detective, Hercule Poirot, facing some of the most difficult deductions and decisions of his life. My own decision, on the other hand, is quite simple: Yes, I definitely recommend you book passage on this Orient Express.

Murder on the Orient Express runs through September 28 at Flat Rock Playhouse. For more information or tickets, visit flatrockplayhouse.org.

Photos courtesy of Flat Rock Playhouse. At top of page: A scene from Murder on the Orient Express featuring cast members (from left) Betsy Bisson, Amanda Tong, Matt Wade, Laura Jordan, Steven Rattazzi, Scott Treadway, Jessica Mosher, Keith Rubin, Maddie Franke, and Galloway Stevens.