Murder on the Orient Express review

A challenge of staging one of Agatha Christie’s best-known murder mysteries is that large swathes of the audience will come in knowing exactly how the action plays out and precisely whodunnit. Ken Ludwig’s adaptation, which premiered in New Jersey in 2017, doesn’t reinvent the wheel. There are witty, almost farcical touches – especially in the first half – and the character count from Christie’s 1934 novel has been trimmed down. But the story in Lucy Bailey’s lightly heightened, handsomely mounted touring production unfolds largely as expected, yet manages to remain gripping, right up to Hercule Poirot’s final reveal.

Bailey has form when it comes to Christie: her previous productions include And Then There Were None and the unstoppable Witness for the Prosecution, which has been in residency at London County Hall since 2017. Bailey’s steady hand means that the production has the reassuringly familiar look and feel of a cosy Sunday night drama, yet still features some striking tableaus and stylistic touches. At times, the suspects move together as if buffeted by the rocking of a train, bathed in steam and dramatically spotlit by Oliver Fenwick, while Ian William Galloway’s giant video projections provide an imposing backdrop.

But the centrepiece is designer Mike Britton’s impressively realised rotating train carriage, which splits apart and is reassembled in numerous inventive ways. As a result, some of the scene transitions are a little protracted, but deconstructing the train provides a great deal of visual variety. And the 15-strong, immaculately dressed cast is artfully arranged, like Cluedo characters brought vividly to life.

Continued…