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by Ken Ludwig, directed by Morris Panych

Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton

March 6–29, 2026

Monsieur Bouc: “Ma foi! But does everybody on this train tell lies?”

If you are looking for a thoroughly entertaining journey of two hours, you have only to buy a ticket to Murder on the Orient Express. Theatre Aquarius gives Ken Ludwig’s 2017 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s famous novel a lavish production with a cast that could hardly be bettered. The adapter Ken Ludwig, best known for his comedies such as Lend Me a Tenor (1986), enlivens the mystery with humour without ever undercutting the tense atmosphere. You may have read the 1934 novel or seen the famous 1974 film starring Albert Finney or the 2010 TV movie starring David Suchet. Even so, that will not spoil the fun of seeing Christie's characters live on stage.

The story, as many will know, focusses on Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who needs to return to Britain from Istanbul. Fellow Belgian, Monsieur Bouc, the director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, gives Poirot his own first-class compartment on the CIWL’s famed Orient Express, which strangely for winter is otherwise completely sold out. While waiting, Poirot notes that the people booked in first class are a very odd mixture of people. After boarding, an American business man, Samuel Ratchett, offers Poirot the job of finding out who has been sending him threatening letters. Poirot, who is used to refusing cases from people who displease him, rejects Ratchett’s offer. On the second evening of the journey, the train gets stuck in a snowdrift in somewhere in Croatia. On the third day after departure, Bouc informs Poirot that Ratchett has been murdered.

Thus, Christie gives us one of her favourite motifs, the “closed circle” setting in which a murder occurs among small group of people, isolated from the outside world, with the implication that all are suspects, one of whom must be the murderer. Christie’s variation of this familiar device makes Murder on the Orient Express one of her most ingenious mysteries.

In the original novel and in the films, there are twelve suspects. In order to make the play more manageable, Ludwig has reduced the number to eight. He has kept the most interesting characters — notably the Hungarian Countess Andrenyi, the British couple of Colonel Arbuthnot and Mary Debenham, the Russian Princess Dragomiroff, the wealthy American Helen Hubbard, the American lawyer Hector MacQueen and the Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson. Poirot, Bouc and the conductor Michel round out the cast of ten.

With no disrespect to the actors, the most astonishing aspect of the production is Brandon Kleiman’s fantastic set. Kleiman has designed a complete railway carriage that takes up almost the entire width of the stage. It is mounted on an octagonal platform set on a revolve. One side of the carriage shows us the compartments of Ratchett and Mrs. Hubbard connected by a communicating door. The other side is an elegant lounge with stylish chairs and tables. In between is a corridor running the full length of the carriage, a platform mounted with the CIWL shield suggesting that the carriage is the last car of the train.

Director Morris Panych has choreographed the movement of the actors so beautifully that it doesn’t occur to you until the show is over how complex the blocking must be since scenes are set with people moving in every part of the carriage, including the corridor, and all must be coordinated with the rotation of the set. In order to depict forward movement, Panych has the set rotate slowly with Mikael Kangas’s lighting and Wayne Kelso’s propulsive music aiding the impression that we are watching the carriage rounds a curve.

Spectacular as the set is, it is also necessary for telling this particular story since in a mystery, as in a farce, who is where when is so important. Panych has recruited a starry cast all of whom give solid performances. Potential audience members will obviously most want to know about the Poirot of Daniel Kash.

A major challenge to anyone playing the role of the great Belgian detective is the definitive embodiment of the part by David Suchet, who appeared in televised versions of every novel and short story Christie wrote featuring the character. Kash’s approach seems to be to make the part his own by rejecting all the primness and fussiness Suchet brought to the role. Designer Brandon Kleiman does not dress Poirot as he appears on television but rather in a loose woolen suit and ordinary shoes without spats. The Montreal-born Kash uses a French accent but not one as strong as Suchet’s. Some may wish Kash’s Poirot were more eccentric, but Ludwig does not paint him so. Ludwig never lets Poirot use his signature phrase concerning his “little grey cells”. As a result, Kash’s Poirot comes across not as a peculiar dandy but as a more ordinary, approachable human being.

Of the eight other passengers, the most memorable performance comes from Nora McLellan as the brash, thrice-divorced American Helen Hubbard. McLellan is expert at making this clichéd rich American both thoroughly obnoxious and fun. We laugh at Hubbard’s unshakeable self-centredness as well at her belief that she is still irresistible even in advanced middle-age. Panych allows McLellan to be the show’s main source of humour, and just as well since the subject is, in fact, very dark. It’s great that Panych allows McLellan to sing a little just to remind us of her past in musical theatre (think of her Mama Rose in Gypsy at the Shaw Festival in 2005).

None of the other actors dominate the story as much as Kash and McLellan but work together as a tight ensemble. After so many appearances in musicals like Dave Molloy's The Great Comet in 2023–25, it is a pleasure to see Brendan Wall play such an extensive spoken role as Monsieur Bouc. Ludwig uses Bouc primarily as a confidant for Poirot, and Wall makes Bouc such a sympathetic figure that Bouc serves as our representative on stage, asking questions we would ask and reacting to events as we would react.

Shaw Festival regular Martin Happer plays two passengers, the American Samuel Ratchett and the Scotsman Colonel Arbuthnot. Happer clearly distinguishes the two by accent and habits, but Happer has such a distinctive look that mystery-lovers may, at first, believe that one of his characters is impersonating the other. After Ratchett’s demise, of course, there is no longer any difficulty.

Kiana Woo plays Arbuthnot’s beloved, Mary Debenham, as a bundle of nerves from the very start. Woo, does so, however, in such a way she seems racked with guilt. What causes this overwhelming sense of guilt is one of the story’s many subsidiary mysteries.

Pamela Mala Sinha makes an imperious Princess Dragomiroff. We don’t really get to see much of the witty side of her personality until Ludwig sets the Princess and Mrs. Hubbard against each other in an hilarious contest of insults.

Birgitte Solem plays Greta Ohlsson, the Swedish missionary. How such a pious, timid person should come to know someone as exalted as the Princess is yet another mystery within the mystery.

Kristen Peace is the play’s other aristocrat, Countess Andrenyi, whom Peace lends a mild Hungarian accent. Peace makes the Countess a fascinating figure who combines effortless grace with a practical knowledge of medicine. Mark Crawford, now best known as a playwright (e.g., Bed and Breakfast), is the American lawyer Hector MacQueen. Crawford has a fine moment when he reveals that MacQueen’s generally placid exterior hides a fiery, barely contained anger.

Steven Gallagher plays two roles, the main one of which is that of Michel, the conductor. Gallagher ably takes on Michel’s principal function of amplifying our surprise or bewilderment at the action’s many twists at the same time as he attempts to keep order in a situation that threatens to descend into chaos.

Ludwig presents the action as occurring in Poirot’s memory since Poirot says it is a case that haunts him still. Poirot provides the show’s opening and closing monologues. In both Ludwig has Poirot ponder the nature of justice and how it can best be served. Poirot’s meditation on this subject comes directly from the novel and gives story a depth that most murder mysteries do not have. Entertaining and visually spectacular as it is, Murder on the Orient Express also gives audiences something serious to ponder. This is a fine production that would be welcome in any city across the country.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Brendan Wall as Monsieur Bouc, Kristen Peace as Countess Andrenyi, Pamela Mala Sinha as Princess Dragomiroff, Birgitte Solem as Greta Ohlsson, Martin Happer as Colonel Arbuthnot, Daniel Kash as Hercule Poirot, Kiana Woo as Mary Debenham, Mark Crawford as Hector MacQueen, Nora McLellan as Helen Hubbard and Steven Gallagher as Michel; Mark Crawford as Hector MacQueen, Kiana Woo as Mary Debenham, Steven Gallagher as Michel and Martin Happer as Samuel Ratchett; Daniel Kash as Hercule Poirot; Kristen Peace as Countess Andrenyi, Martin Happer as Colonel Arbuthnot, Kiana Woo as Mary Debenham, Mark Crawford as Hector MacQueen, Nora McLellan as Helen Hubbard, Steven Gallagher as Michel and Daniel Kash as Hercule Poirot. © 2026 Dahlia Katz.

For tickets visit: theatreaquarius.org.