All aboard, for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's stunning production of Murder on the Orient Express that opened their 2025-2026 Season in fine form!
It is one of Agatha Christie's most popular whodunnit murder mysteries featuring masterful Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, whose "little grey cells" have to work overtime to deduce a murderer's identity and enact justice. -- Many actors have portrayed Poirot [Albert Finney, Kenneth Branagh, David Suchet, among others], and while in ASF's Artistic Director Quin Gresham's iteration, Chris Mixon looks a lot like Suchet's persona, he does not mimic him but rather creates an intelligent, determined, and confident sleuth who can astonish us through his adept maneuverings.
The adaptation by Ken Ludwig [the fourth Ludwig production in just over a year] contains all the suspense of its source, with some added wit and theatricality thrown in. Containing many staples of the murder-mystery genre [a suspicious murder, a curious array of suspects stranded by a storm with little communication from the outside, lots of misleading clues, a brilliant detective, and a final revelation], much of the audience enjoyment stems from trying to figure it all out before the end. And Gresham and his ensemble sustain the suspense through till the final moments. -- But there is more to it...a good deal of attention is focused on the moral obligations of the law and justice.
Some years before the action begins, young child Daisy Armstrong was murdered, but the culprit was never caught. Now we see gathered in the first-class carriages of the Orient Express, a mix of colorful characters en route, with Poirot on board by circumstance. Overnight a murder of one of the passengers occurs when the train is stalled by an avalanche; the perpetrator could not have left the train, so all the other passengers are suspects...but who had the motive and opportunity to do the crime? And what, if any, connection to little Daisy's death could there be?
The ensemble actors [Axel Avin, Jr., Tarah Flanagan, Daniel Harray, Susannah Hoffman, Greta Lambert, Jesse Manocherian, Gustavo Marquez, Jean McCormick, Michael McKensie, Max Monnig, Cassia Thompson] create memorable personae in supporting Mr. Mixon, affecting an assortment of international accents befitting their roles, and deftly dropping clues and shifting possible guilt to others in their company, and for Poirot and us to deduce.
Production values of the highest caliber enhance the experience: Stephen Gifford's design of the opulent train and its fixtures and moveable parts exquisitely transports us to the 1930s, while Garth Dunbar's period and character-driven costumes add credence to actor portrayals. -- Lighting [Jared Sayer], Sound [Ryan Matthew Hall], and sophisticated Projections [Kylee Loera] complete the visual delight of this production.
The entire two-hour ride keeps us guessing from start to finish. We are carried along by Ludwig's script, stunning visual effects, and the adroitness of Gresham's directing, relying on the gifted actors to engage us and leave us satisfied. And giving thought to how the justice system works, or ought to.
