Murder On The Nile

I have to say I haven’t come across this before. Obviously, everybody knows the titles, Murder on The Orient Express and Death on the Nile, but Murder on the Nile with Cannon Pennefather replacing Poirot had passed me by. It turns out it is still basically the same story set a couple years before the outbreak of War in 1937,  with a lovers plot to defraud an heiress of her fortune, with some name changes and one or two different characters and, as the very informative programme tells us Poirot was replaced by Pennefather as Christie was worried he would draw too much attention on the stage. This production was directed by founding member of The Over Players, Christine Turner, who told me she decided to put it forward after no one came forward with the usual spring musical to direct. Great choice! Who doesn’t love an Agatha Christie!

The set design by Alan Kenney was extremely good, giving a very authentic modern Egyptian setting onboard the deck of a luxury cruise down the Nile with tables and chairs to a painted backcloth of the river Nile and Pyramids with arches in Arabic style architecture above the guard rail on the side of the boat. 

Lighting, designed and operated by Andy Burrell finished off the atmosphere setting perfectly, especially when it came to the evening scene, which together with the unusually warm night on which were watching the play really did give you the feeling of a hot Egyptian Night.

With sound designed and operated by Mike Bernard was quite a surprise. What I wasn’t expecting was the entire cast to be mic’d for a play, but for a society which usually specialises in a Musical and a Pantomime every year I guess it was a no brainer. Once they got the balance right, which started off a little too loud on this the opening night, my aging ears certainly appreciated the clarity of speech. And there was an amusing moment where a mic had been left on and the backstage chatter came though the speakers. But overall, it all worked very well indeed.

Costumes by Maria Baker and Mandy Turpin were very well sourced and certainly capturing the period from the men’s baggy trouser fashion of the day, striking fashionable dresses and trouser suits for the ladies to the stereotypical Egyptian robes of the Street Seller and of course the obligatory Fez for the ship’s Steward.

The acting requires putting over both the attitude of each stereotype character and the style of speech from the period and this the cast did particularly well. The most extreme example was Miss Ffoliot-Ffoulkes played by Tessa Kilvington-Shaw, who put across the class snobbishness of the period particularly well, especially in the way she treated her great niece and travelling companion, Christina Grant as her servant. Whereas the real maid to the Mostyn’s was played with demure servility by Jennifer Taieb.

Contrasting that with a distain of the class system was socialist William Smith played with upbeat humour by Chris Greenaway, who took no prisoners when saying what he really thought and giving cutting assessments of the other passengers.

Canon Pennefather played by Roger Hetherington was, as Christie wanted, certainly different to Hercule Poirot and quietly got on with the business of solving the murder asking good searching questions. Extremely well pitched.

Simon Mostyn played by Jamie Tipple was every bit the personable attentive newlywed and if you didn’t know the plot would certainly have fooled everybody. His new bride, Kay, played by Chloe Wills had entitled class and money written all over her, but played it much more subtlety than Miss Ffoliot-Ffoulkes.

Jacqueline de Severac played by Sarah Carbonero, the jealous girlfriend and femme fatale played haunting Kay to the hilt. Add in Charles Barclay as the rather mysterious Dr Bessner who was an excellent red herring as you were never quite sure of him.

As somebody who has lived in a middle eastern country, I instantly recognised the hustle of the two Beadsellers, Richard Fenwick and Alan Kenney (Who doubled as the ships Captain) and true to form they didn’t let up. Certainly brought back a memory or two, and a smile to my face.

Harry Ashby was every bit the efficient ship’s steward, an imposing figure who knew exactly when and where to appear to be at the beck and call of the passengers. Very well pitched!

All in all this was a plain good fun Agatha Christie ‘who done it.’  The pace could have done with a little bit of an injection at times, but all the characters did what Agatha Christie wanted projected, and the audience were fully engaged throughout. On a hot sticky night that in itself is an achievement. So well done to Christine Turner, her cast and crew on an enjoyable evening’s entertainment.

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