The Evergreen Playhouse’s 64th season opens Friday the 13th with an appropriately chilling Agatha Christie mystery: “Murder on the Orient Express.”
The story follows Christie’s famous detective Hercule Poirot, as his vacation to Istanbul is interrupted by a call back to Scotland Yard. He struggles to get a last-minute ticket on the overnight passenger train, the Orient Express, which is uncharacteristically sold-out.
Luckily for Poirot (played by Henry Wegener), his friend Monsieur Bouc (Sean-Patrick McNeal) runs the train company and is able to secure Poirot a personal compartment on the train, which is also carrying English governess Mary Debenham (Anastasia Cooper); American widow Helen Hubbard (Nicole Galyen); Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson (Cecilia Noreau); American businessman Samuel Ratchett (Travis Martinez), with his secretary and translator Hector MacQueen (Jordan McMahon); Russian Princess Dragomiroff (Alene Steward); Hungarian Countess Andrenyi (Brittany Wilcox) and English Colonel John Arbuthnot (Travis Martinez). Tim Donnell rounds out the cast as the train’s conductor, Michel.
“So then we have everybody going on the train, just going about their day, when, sometime in the middle of the night, at an unspecified time, one of our passengers turns up dead,” director Nathan Crummett said. “Monsieur Bouc enlists the help of his friend to solve the case before the police arrive, so there won’t be a huge publicity stunt. And then, hijinks ensue.”
While Wegener, 24, is a bit taller and younger than the traditional image of Poirot, he said he hopes the audience will forget that once they see him embody the character on stage.
“It really is an honor to … act as such an iconic character that everybody knows, so I've been working really hard to try to find those little nuances and bring Poirot to the stage,” Wegener said.
McNeal’s character serves as a “sidekick” to Wegener’s Poirot, which McNeal said was a new experience for him as an actor.
“It’s really interesting, playing that sort of role where I get to fanboy about, genuinely, one of my favorite actors in the world,” McNeal said.
The show is the directorial debut for 18-year-old Crummet, who has been acting and volunteering backstage for community theater productions since he was 7 or 8.
“I felt that a murder mystery was a really good show for a director to start out with. There are a lot of things that you can learn really early on,” Crummet said.
When asked what he would ask audiences to keep in mind when they come to see the show, Crummet said, “I’d like them to keep in mind that for just about every movie versus stage production, there will be differences, so keep an open mind because there will be some differences.”
For example, Crummet said, he and the actors take full advantage of the comedic moments in the show to relieve some of the tension inherent to the murder mystery.
“We have these comedic moments immediately followed up by very dark moments, and that way we can have, like, a little sense of brevity,” Crummet said.
While Evergreen’s production is different from other movie and play adaptations audiences may have seen, Wegener said he felt the script is true to Christie’s book and effectively translates the drama to the stage.
“Nobody will be dozing off during the show,” Wegener said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch and, hopefully, the audience will follow along with all the clues.”
Cast
Hercule Poirot: Henry Wegener
Monsieur Bouc: Sean-Patrick McNeal
Mary Debenham: Anastasia Cooper
Hector MacQueen: Jordan McMahon
Michel/Head Waiter: Tim Donnell
Princess Dragomiroff: Alene Stewart
Greta Ohlsson: Cecilia Noreau
Countess Andrenyi: Brittany Wilcox
Helen Hubbard: Nicole Galyean
Colonel Arbuthnot/Samuel Ratchett: Travis Martinez
IF YOU GO
When: Oct. 13-29, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: Evergreen Playhouse, 226 W. Center St., Centralia
Tickets: $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors.
Info: Tickets can be purchased at evergreenplayhouse.com or at the door. A pay-what-you-can performance is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
