Murder on the Orient Express
Orinda Company Makes Good with Agatha Christie Gem
By: Victor Cordell - Jun 08, 2025
Any work of literature with the word murder in the title immediately evokes grizzly thoughts of harrowing scenes of bloody death or police procedurals – except when the name Agatha Christie is attached. In the myriad interpretations of her works for the screen, many are light hearted fare headed by comics such as Peter Ustinov or Margaret Rutherford. Ken Ludwig adapted Murder on the Orient Express for the stage, and Orinda Starlight Village Players, a small but enduring community theater, offer a highly entertaining and humorous production.
From the time that Patrick Atkinson as Detective Hercule Poirot takes the stage for his opening soliloquy, one can breathe a sigh of relief that at least the lead role will be performed in a captivating manner. But wait! While community theater is notorious for uneven acting, each of the dozen actors holds their own in this raucous, farcical mystery. Remarkably, the range of accents of the characters runs from Belgian Walloon (French) to Scottish to Slavic, and overall, they are well differentiated and delivered yet clearly understandable.
For the rare reader who may not be familiar with this work, the denouement won’t be revealed, but the setup will. Poirot has boarded the train westbound from Istanbul. Despite being off-season, the first-class coach is full with an omnium gatherum of nationalities and occupations.
Monsieur Bouc (played by an ebullient Wayne Goodman) who is Poirot’s friend and manager of the train company, is on board. In time, we will meet all of the passengers including a couple on a tryst and a Hungarian countess who doesn’t seem to be Hungarian. But the most demonstrative, of course, is an American. Helen Hubbard, is played to the hilt by Kelsey Bye as a self-important and self-serving wealthy and overwrought woman who forces flippant humor into any verbal exchange, like offering the “biblical” quote, “If Moses doesn’t know the answer, ask the concierge.”
Although Poirot is on vacation, he is buttonholed by Samuel Ratchett, played by an insistent and ominous Ken Sollazzo, who offers him significant money to take a case. Poirot turns him down but ends up on a case for free when Ratchett is found dead, having been drugged and stabbed eight times. From that point, Poirot will systematically investigate and interrogate the passengers until he solves the mystery.
OrSVP is one of the many under-the-radar community theaters in the Bay Area with a small but loyal following. A production like this will hopefully prompt more support. Matt Cardigan-Smith is the recently-arrived visionary and creative factotum who has made a tremendous impact with limited resources. Not only does he direct, but he designed the set, sound, and costumes, all of which make important contributions to the overall success of the project.
Although the set has the cheap look of cardboard construction, it is colorful, versatile, and successful in serving its purpose. One challenge that Cardigan-Smith faced was the multiple locale changes, which he accomplishes using a clever convertible set. And in one set change to erect the sleep cabins, all of the cast scurried like bunnies shifting pieces into place.
Off the stage, the set is supplemented with a locomotive, complete with cow catcher and beam light, and off to the side a telegraph/radio table appears for several scenes. Piped sound is used to great advantage. Discussions relating to an earlier and relevant murder are heard, and when Poirot is questioning passengers, their own taped words are replayed as reminders. Background noises and music round out the sense of the environment. These are all touches that reflect well on the effort to create a rich production while having little money to work with.
The storyline of Murder on the Orient Express, exposing its characters’ truths over time, engages throughout. The cast takes complete advantage of the opportunities to extract humor at every turn. Much interaction between personalities resonates. In one particular contentious exchange, Helen and the Russian Princess Dragomiroff amusingly hurl epithets at one another in very dissimilar styles, reflecting their different social stations.
One weakness in the script is that some subsequent developments are telegraphed early on, but that probably doesn’t matter much to those who already know the outcome. While it doesn’t convey the tone of a morality play, in the end, the play is very reflective concerning moral relativism, so there is meaning for those looking for it. But for everyone, it is a fun and worthy entertainment. Hopefully the folks from Orinda and its surrounds will catch on.
Murder on the Orient Express, adapted by Ken Ludwig from the novel by Agatha Christie, is produced by Orinda Starlight Village Players and is performed at Orinda Community Park Amphitheater (outdoors on benches with no back support, food and drink allowed), 28 Orinda Way, Orinda, CA through July 5, 2025.