[Fredericksburg Free Press] A killer performance: Riverside’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express” impresses

Stephen Hu - Fredericksburg Free Press

August 24, 2024

The play's current adaptation was written by Ken Ludwig at the request of the Agatha Christie estate. (Photo courtesy of Riverside/Suzanne Carr Rossi)

Agatha Christie is synonymous with murder mysteries, and Riverside Center For the Performing Arts has taken on one of her best-known novels as their latest production. “Murder On The Orient Express” is a wild ride on the famed train with a cast of eccentric characters who are not always who they seem.

The current adaptation was written by Ken Ludwig at the request of the Agatha Christie Estate, and it premiered in 2017 at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, N.J.

The entire Riverside cast delivers superb performances. If the accents seem a little uneven, the charm of each character soon overcomes any reservations and draws the audience deep into this complex plot.

Kevin Cleary is memorable as the stylish Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Cleary is a frequent actor on the Riverside stage, and his ability to assume diverse roles serves him well here. You can almost see the wheels in his mind move as he works out a series of surprising twists to solve the murder.

An excellent foil to Cleary’s character is the train manager, Monsieur Bouc, played here by Brent Deekens. A newcomer to Riverside, Deekens has an ease with the character who is considerably older and provides many fine comic moments.

Also notable are double roles played by Alan Hoffman, who pulls off a vulgar American in his portrayal of Samuel Ratchett and the passenger — Colonel Arbuthnot — who has a light Scottish brogue accent. He plays both so convincingly that I had to double-check the playbill to verify it was the same actor.

A frequent actor on the Riverside stage, Andrea Kahane plays the duplicitous Helen Hubbard. Redeploying the Midwestern accent she employed as Aunt Em in “The Wizard Of Oz,” Kahane is loud and funny in her role here.

The rest of the cast holds up equally to these strong characters: Valerie Chinn as Mary Debenham; Colby LeRoy as Hector MacQueen; Cam Hovey as Michel the conductor; Kathy Halenda as Princess Dragomiroff; Stephanie Wood as Greta Ohlsson; and Sheri Hayden as Countess Andrenyi.

Innovative staging by the Riverside production team helped move the story along from a cafe in Istanbul to the train platform to different scenes onboard the train. There is a very effective use of strobe lights set to Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance with some clever choreography at the end of Act 1 that leaves the audience on a cliff just before intermission.

If you are yearning for a good mystery this summer, be sure to catch “Murder On the Orient Express” before it leaves the station for the last time.

If you go

“Murder On The Orient Express” Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, 95 Riverside Parkway, Fredericksburg
Runs until Sept. 8. Tickets are $55-$82, available online here.