Murder on the Orient Express

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS IS A FUN, MYSTERIOUS AND REALLY ENJOYABLE PLAY WORTH SEEING!

Agatha Christie - an author’s name almost as recognisable as Shakespeare, and a woman who has written an insane amount of novels and plays. Last night, one of her popular crime stories took to the Lyric stage at The Lowry, to share suspicion and thrill with Salford, led by popular detective Hercule Poirot. 

The Lowry was buzzing when we arrived, which is no surprise due to the popularity of the play. They really made the night feel special and added to the build up of the show with a jazz band and train noises echoing around, creating the atmosphere of The Orient Express and taking the audience back to the right timestamp.

The story is set in Winter 1934 and follows Poirot’s mission to crack the murder case that has taken place on The Orient Express. The train is full of suspects and is a case deemed impossible to solve. The passengers are trapped due to an avalanche which means the killer is still on-board. 

The plot itself is a classic murder mystery, with clues that lead to nowhere and pin everyone as the suspect at some point, quick wit for moments of laughter and slow builds to increase the tension. So though I’d never seen an Agatha Christie play before, I had an inclination of what to expect from the show as a whole. 

For me, the set was the real standout of the whole performance, and I’m still questioning how they even made it work! It was like an actual vintage train carriage was on the stage, and it opened up to reveal beautiful first class suites - though they were more like tiny pods. It was clever how they used the set to differentiate between scenes, turning it around as if it was moving on the track, to showing the inside of the bedrooms where the characters were settling, to a closed off environment that acted as a corridor. 

The set was simply beautiful with wooden furniture and deep blue tones, the kind of vintage aesthetic you’d expect from a 1930s movie. The background noises of the train and jazz music really brought it to life. Added with the classic retro costumes from the time period, all still deep shades or mute colours, to keep to that mysterious vibe of the plot.|

Led by Michael Maloney (Belfast, Winner’s Curse, Hamlet) as Hercule Poirot, the ensemble cast was great, with each character very different to another - another classic murder mystery aspect. To summerise, there’s the secret couple, the rich and powerful woman, the shy one, and the one who talks too much, to name a few. 

Maloney’s take on Poirot was brilliant, bringing the well known detective to life on stage and nailing the characteristics associated with him - including the accent! He had that classic detective confidence and clever way of picking apart the tiny details of each suspects, really getting to the core of their characters. He kept the storyline flowing without losing the main aim of uncovering the crime, all whilst adding a bit of fun and flirting to the plot. 

Murder mysteries are fun shows to watch as they allow the audience to get involved with the plot, making the question who they think is the killer and how it even happened. I always enjoy picking up on the clues and guessing whether it’s actually a significant clue or not, then seeing how it rolls out in the end. 

Agatha Christie’s classic tales have all the usual elements of the genre, along with a nice dose of vintage setting. It’s uncomplicated and easy to follow, so it is a good classic to see if a Christie story is on your theatre bucket list. 

WE SCORE MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS...