Murder on the Nile

Murder on the Nile is one of Agatha Christie’s classic murder mysteries. This was first performed in Dundee on 17th January 1944 during the war years but was performed under a different title, Hidden Horizon, at its West End debut at the Ambassadors Theatre in March 1946. The storyline is well known to all Agatha Christie fans, it is the murder on a paddle steamer travelling the Nile. The play has several different character changes from the original book Death on the Nile so the audience had to think laterally as to who would have been who in the original book and this keep us alert.

The play is usually performed in three acts all set on board the Lotus paddle steamer.  The first act sets the scene for the characters coming on board the ship and the second and third acts being some days later when the boat is moored by the Temple of Abu Simbel. Oldbury Rep performed this in two acts with the interval in the middle of what would be act two.

Oldbury Rep are very good at using part of the auditorium as an introduction to the play. This being no exception as the beadsellers greeted the passengers as they were boarding the steamer from the floor of the auditorium.  We were introduced to the characters as they boarded the boat and right at the beginning, we were aware of the fact that Mr and Mrs Mostyn were glad to be avoiding Mrs Mostyn’s previous best friend.  Much to Mrs Mostyn’s disgust her friend Jacqueline de Severac appeared on board and continually harassed her. Simon Mostyn played by Lee Morgan-Salcombe played his role to perfection and the scene where he was shot was as if it had been taken out of the film. Lucy Poulson certainly led us to believe she was a wealthy individual with a high importance of herself and it’s a pity we did not see more of her. Melanie Brown as the rejected friend was excellent in her role and if you did not know the story you could have come to a different conclusion as to her character. All through the play you would have thought that the shooting of Simon was a genuine accident.

What would have been the role of Hercule Poirot in the films was Canon Pennefather played by Alan Growcott, his contribution played an important part in holding the story together linked in well with the other actors. The other taking part, William Smith as Jake Jones, Samantha Gessey as Miss Ffion-Ffoules, Toni Bird as Christina Grant, Sue Jones as Louise, Chris Broad as Dr Bessner, Andy Brown as McNaught, Sue Hitchen and Emily Jeffrey as the beadsellers and Rich Walter as Steward all made significant contributions to the overall enjoyment of this well-known story and play.

The production team was led by the Director Rich Walter ably assisted by Lynne Payne.

Oldbury are lucky in that they have a permanent theatre to work from but that should not take away the efforts of all members who are part of the production team. Lighting and sound were well executed and it makes a change to be able to hear all actors with no microphones and the sound at just the right level.

Congratulations to all, well done.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.