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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Fatal attraction of the Nile
Murder on the Nile
The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster
**** FOR isolated
country house in a snowstorm, read paddle steamer on the Nile, add
assorted guests from the posher end of the street, throw in a few
foreigners, who we all know are congenitally dodgy, a body count to
rival Midsomer Murders
and Agatha Christie fans will be in their element - and so are the
cast. The play started life
as Moon on the Nile,
but Christie thought it would work best on the printed page, so it was
reborn as the 1937 novel Death on the
Nile featuring Hercule Poirot, but by
the time Christie decided to rewrite it again as a play, Hercule, a
character Christie disliked intensely, had been dumped overboard to be
replaced by the sleuthing Canon Ambrose Pennefather – although, as this
is Christie, he is not above suspicion. The good Rev, played with suitable vagueness and
pastoral concern by Patrick Bentley, is uncle and former guardian of Kay
Ridgeway-Mostyn, the richest woman in England, newly married and on her
honeymoon, played with the superior air of woman who gets her own way by
Marika Farr. Her new husband, Simon, played by Stefan Austin,
is a bit wet to be honest, tending to hysteria and with his touch of
clipped accent and melodrama, is the perfect 1930s hero . . . or cad.
Who knows? After all everyone is a suspect. Adding to the mix is foreigner one, the slightly
mad Jacqueline de Severac, played by Nikki Fisher, who manages a very
nice hysterical drunk when needed, drunk never being an easy role to
play convincingly. Jacquie is, or was, Kay’s best friend and was
once engaged to Simon. We suspect she might be a few bottles short of a
crate, particularly when, three sheets to the w Foreigner No 2 is Louise, Kay’s French maid,
played in suitable servile fashion by Hannah Tolley. Her accent alone
marks her out as a suspect in the Christie way of things.
And then there is Dr Bessner, a doctor from some
unspecified country in the general area of Germany from his accent. It
was a country that was ruined by Kay’s ultra rich late father. The Doc,
played with a consistent accent by Andy Barlow, would have been more of
a suspect had he not been spending much of the second act mopping up
blood, trying to give injections and checking pulses. His anger at the way the rich in the shape of
Kay’s father had ruined his father and the poor of his country was
echoed by the left wing, cynical firebrand William Smith, played with
offhand disdain for the wealthy and higher echelons of society by Chris
Kay. How such a man of the people could afford a berth
on a luxury paddle steamer on the Nile was a mystery until we discover
his real secret and who he really is (cue dramatic music) in the second
act. And we can’t discount the wealthy and ultra
snobbish Helen ffoliot-ffoulkes, with lowercase fs
note, none of your proletariat capitals here. Sandy
Tudor plays her with a glorious contempt for all around her – unless of
course she sees them as at least her social equals. An unashamed social climber
she is travelling with her niece Christina Grant, played with quiet
subservience by Harriet Poulton, who she treats as not so much a
travelling companion as a slave and someone she blames for not only her
own failings but everyone else’s as well as anything untoward that
happens. Then there are a few
peripheral figures, the captain of the Lotus, McNaught for
With Christie’s habit of
creating characters who are usually not who they say they are, or have
backstories which we only discover when the undertakers are already
working overtime removing corpses, there are enough red herrings
swimming around to spawn any number of theories until all is revealed. The cast seem to be
enjoying themselves, which rubs off on the audience,
keep their accents well where needed and manage to build the suspense at
a nice pace, well directed by Lynn Ravenhill. Christie’s plays, ingenious in
their time, seem a little old fashioned in plot and dialogue these days
and can seem a little pedestrian as they wordily first
set the scene and then slowly unravel the plot, which
is a drawback of the genre and no reflection on this production, indeed
Ravenhill has done well to keep the paddleboat chugging down the Nile at
a decent lick with only a single static set for assistance. Mind you Keith Higgins and
Mike Lawrence and their team did produce a splendid set, the saloon of a
1930’s Egyptian paddle steamer – not that I know what one looked like,
but it was easy to imagine it had seen service for generations of
ladies and gents with ff lowercase,
hyphenated surnames sipping gin fizzes and reading Tatler. If you enjoy a good murder
mystery, and Agatha Christie was the undoubted queen of the field, then
this one is for you. To 31-01-15 Roger Clarke
26-01-15 |
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ind,
she starts singing Frankie and Johnnie quietly to herself rocking away
in the corner, which in truth is more distracting than unsettling.