All aboard for murder & mystery at Manor Mill Playhouse
Anyone looking for a truly killer time at the theater can look no further than Manor Mill Playhouse, where from October 3 – 12 you can enjoy Ken Ludwig’s snappy, breezy, suspenseful stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.
Directing the production is Manor Mill Playhouse’s Artistic Director, Vanessa Eskridge; she was able to take some time out of rehearsals to join me in the studio to talk about the show–as you can hear here:
The play is, of course, based on the same much-loved, often-adapted detective novel–originally published in 1934–that was itself inspired by the notorious Lindbergh kidnapping. The book was an immediate sensation and has served as the source for several now-classic film adaptations featuring all-star casts, including the likes of Albert Finney and Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot, Christie’s fastidious, finicky contribution to the pantheon of legendary detectives (alongside her other famous amateur sleuth, the irrepressible Miss Marple). It also helped cement Christie’s reputation as the Queen of Crime, and one of the true innovators in a crowded field.
The story may well be familiar to many. Certainly, it follows a well-established set of formulae, with a host of equally familiar archetypes in its cast of characters. But as is often the case, here so much of the delicious pleasure lies in the Why and the How as much as the Whodunnit. A large group of suspects provides a rich array of distinctive characters for actors to bring to life and for audiences to enjoy. Motives maketh the Mystery, as it were–and there’s plenty of both to go around. Anyone who enjoys the Knives Out films will feel right at home.
And speaking of home, there’s the setting: here, not a genteel country house reminiscent of a game of Clue but rather the world’s most glamorous train, the Venice-Istanbul line dubbed The Orient Express. There, Hercule Poirot finds himself snowbound and stuck with a most intriguing assortment of fellow travelers–and a corpse. The rest must follow as the night the day.
To get in on the action and test your wits against the mighty “little grey cells” of Monsieur Poirot, go to the Manor Mill Playhouse website for tickets, days, times, and more information.
