Murder On The Orient Express At Drayton Entertainment
Agatha Christie specialized in writing murder mysteries, the solutions of which invariably made me exclaim “Oh, gimme a break!” And none more so than Murder on the Orient Express whose denouement reaches monumental heights of improbability. Maybe that’s why it has become so beloved by so many.
At Drayton Entertainment’s Hamilton Family Theatre in Cambridge Ken Ludwig’s deft adaptation is getting an amiable and quite enjoyable production under the shrewd direction of Mike Shara. Shara demonstrated his affinity for this sort of material in his nifty production of And Then There Were None last season.
Murder on the Orient Express, set in the 1930s, begins in Istanbul and stalls somewhere in the snowy mountains of the then Yugoslavia. That is to say the eponymous luxury train gets snowed in, preventing the escape of the usual suspects, which naturally means everyone on board.
Shara pays homage to the standard tropes of the genre, with copious fog effects symbolizing the romantic age of steam trains and artfully composed stage pictures with all the suspects on display.
An odd assortment of colourful characters is on board as the Orient Express heads to Paris. Premier among them is the legendary French…er, I mean Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (Patrick McManus).
Ere long an unsavoury character is found dead, stabbed eight (count ‘em, eight) times. But who? How? The stopped, snowed-in luxury train is in effect a locked room which no one has entered or exited. (No footprints in the snow don’tcha know.)
Poirot, who had announced he was on holiday, takes up the case and it’s only a matter of time, just two acts, before he solves the riddle.
Shara is, of course, also an actor of some repute, which may explain how he is able to assemble such stellar casts for this sort of frivolously enjoyable fare. The cast of Murder on the Orient Express, in fact, is the major reason to attend.
McManus’ Poirot is the star of the show, of course, and a tip of the hat to him and Shara for not lathering the character up with all manner of prissy affectations as is the common practice.
The remainder of the Murder on the Orient Express cast reads like something of a Who’s Who of Ontario talent. Here, in alphabetical order, are just a few of them.
Mark Crawford, an accomplished playwright (Ruby and the Reindeer, The Golden Anniversaries) as well as actor (Ship To Shore), is Hector MacQueen. Tracey Ferencz, who held her own against Randy Hughson in Mercy, is Princess Dragomiroff. Rebecca Gibian, who dazzled as the love interest in Halfway There, is the frumpy Greta Ohlsson.
Bethany Jillard, who will play Portia next season at the Stratford Festival, is sleekly elegant as Countess Andrenyi. Claire Jullien, who has undertaken any number of comic roles at the Foster Festival (The Long Weekend, Screwball Comedy), is the abrasive American Helen Hubbard. Tyrone Savage, who appeared with Jullien in The Long Weekend and with Gibian in Halfway There, doubles as the vile Samuel Ratchett and Colonel Arbuthot.
Another major star in the production are the sets and costumes by Brandon Kleiman. The train set is ingenious. Set on an almost constantly moving revolve and lit artfully by lighting designer Mikael Kangas, it features a central corridor with a lounge area on one side and two compartments on the other. Shara handles the comings and goings of his eleven-member cast masterfully.
I find the plot of Murder on the Orient Express intensely annoying. This production went a long way to helping me get over myself.
Murder on the Orient Express continues at Drayton Entertainment Hamilton Family Theatre in Cambridge through November 1, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Drayton Entertainment website.
[image: Drayton Entertainment]
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