Royal & Derngate Theatre – until 8th November 2025
Review by Amanda Allen
5*****
Most of us are familiar with Agatha Christie and her most famous detective Hercule Poirot. This telling of one of her most acclaimed stories didn’t disappoint. From the initial introduction of himself Mark Hadfield as Poirot transported us to a world of opulence, class, style and ultimately murder on the beautifully crafted stage of the SS Karnak. Christie herself believed this was one of her best “Travel” books and even adapted it to the stage as “Murder on the Nile”.
The story is really one of love, Greed and betrayal all woven together with very believable and likeable characters. This adaptation by Ken Ludwig perfectly draws you into a world where Egyptology was extremely fashionable, attracting a lot of support and investment from well to do people of a particular class. This was demonstrated so well with the attitude and appearance of Libby Alexandra-Cooper who played Linnet Ridgeway, in this her debut stage role, she played the part perfectly. Not only did she look divine, but she also managed to portray the style, elegance and attitude of a young woman of the 1930’s who has everything whilst still maintaining a slight fragility and shyness. Her husband Simon Doyle (Nye Occomore) and her friend Jacqueline De Bellefort (Esme Hough) bought the story to life both giving an excellent portrayal of the Husband and scorned fiancé. For me the outstanding performance of the evening was the brilliant Colonel Race played by Bob Barrett, he personified the character of the slightly stiff Colonel perfectly, with excellent comic timing and a sense of humour he gave us a brilliant foil to Hercule Poirot. In Poirot, Mark Hadfield gave us a man we could all warm to, He managed to keep his accent throughout the majority of the performance really well and gave us a slightly quirky little man, who saw everything, was supposedly on holiday but was almost expecting something to happen and was liked by all aboard the ship. As he said when asked how he knew something “I am Hercule Poirot I do not need to be told”
Special mention must go to the creative team for this production. The whole thing was brilliantly presented with innovative two tier staging which perfectly personified a 1930’s Egyptian steam ship, the multi-functional set design by Mike Britton gave us a luxury paddle steamer with sliding panels easily depicting cabins, saloons and decking. The lighting (designed by Oliver Fenwick) brought each scene perfectly to life and with fabulous costumes perfecting the look we were totally transported to the 1930’s SS Karnak. Glynis Barber as Salome Otterbourne had the most fabulous wardrobe and obviously enjoyed wearing every outfit. The costume department went to town with the evening dress of all the characters with lots of sparkle and glamour perfectly depicting a bygone era of glamour and style. The sound depiction was perfect, Mike Pool the sound designer thought of everything, the crickets in the evening, the paddles of the ship hitting the water, the timing of the gun shots, the subtle way the sounds of early 20th century Egypt completed the picture was fantastic.
If you need a good night out, something to take your mind of the bad weather and the depressing news then this is for you, its playing until the 8th November and is well worth the ticket price.