Murder on the Orient Express at Mt Holyoke
Agatha Christie's famous story and the return of summer theater after 25 years
It’s been 25 years since the summer stage lit up at Mount Holyoke College, and we were thrilled to see the first of their two-show season last night at Kendall Sports Complex on campus. I was pleased when I opened the program and saw a familiar name, Sam Samuels, whom I’ve seen in several memorable plays such as Silverthorne Theatre’s The Mystery of Irma Vep and A Walk in the Woods at New Century. In both shows and in this one, Samuel’s mastery of foreign accents never wavered, and his comedic timing in this show is superb. He’s described as ‘the little man with the silly moustache,” and his cheesy fake moustache was a perfect companion to his depiction of the famous Belgian detective who is always one step ahead of everyone else.
The plot is so complicated that I won’t tip you off at all, but it does wrap itself up nicely, as Agatha wrote it. It involves a murder on the famous train that occurred while the train was stuck in a snowbank en route to Paris.
I wasn’t aware of how many funny moments there would be in a mystery written in 1934, as the book was not a comedy…but the adaptation for the stage by Ken Ludwig managed to have the packed house audience laughing with the regular repartee and funny snap-backs. Joining Samuels on stage was another funny actor who did a great job in the role of a loud-mouthed Midwesterner, Helen Hubbard (Halli Gibson). Like Samuels, she had her own flat accent of Chicago down pat, and her pratfalls and comments got laughs, like “Blam! No more showtunes in the shower!”
The scenic design by Alina Tschumakow was clever; they used two-sided flats, on one side showing the elegant dining room of the Orient Express train, and the other serving as the individual train compartments’ walls.
People ran in and out of the rooms as the murder and knifing piled up; at one point, one actor exclaimed, “That’s a lot of blood!” as Mary Debenham (Leonora Brown) lay on stage, stabbed but not dead.
The pace never let up, and there was no time when the audience wasn’t engaged and following along. The only quibble I had was that Hector Macqueen (Nora Haynsworth) was hard to hear and needed a mic. The company blends recent college graduates like Natalie Werthamer (Countess Andrenyi), current students Leonora Brown (Mary Debenham) and Emma Yee (Greta Ohlsson), and it works; the younger actors benefit from the steady hands of Samuels and fellow equity actor Julie Nelson (Princess Dragomiroff).
The original Mount Holyoke summer theater began in 1970, and Noah Tuleja, the current artistic director and director of this play, worked as an apprentice there in 1987, when they used to do eight different plays a season. And it was all done outside, which was charming, but it was nice not worrying about the weather in the comfortable Mt Holyoke theater.
Sam Samuels also spent time learning his craft, starting in 1978 with this company. Because of all of the accents by characters from around the world in this show, voice coach Hank McDaniel was brought on board to sharpen the accents, and it was obvious. Every actor sounded like they belonged on the Orient Express, dead or alive.
Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express,‘ at Mt Holyoke summer theater, through Saturday, July 11, at Kendall Sports Complex, MHC, tickets here. The second show, ‘The 39 Steps,’ runs from July 17-25, in the same theater. Tickets are only $15, which is a real bargain.