As a train dashes across Europe and into a snowstorm, a murder takes place in the first-class carriage. A moving train is a difficult setting to create in a theater, but Vermont Stage has produced a stylish production worthy of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Thanks to the neat structure of Ken Ludwig’s adaptation and this show’s lush staging, the 1934 murder mystery sweeps viewers onto a train and into another era.
The crime is a perplexing one and a classic closed-circle mystery in which suspects, victim and detective all remain together until the puzzle is solved … or the killer strikes again. Luckily, the brilliant detective Hercule Poirot (John Nagle) is on board.
The play’s characters arrive on the train platform with handsome hand luggage and no shortage of quirks. Because it’s a murder mystery, each idle remark or snippet of background is ripe for scrutiny. Is that Russian princess (Alex S. Hudson) hiding secrets as dark as her elegant black overcoat? Why does her maidservant (Hayley Ryan) seem so nervous and scream so often?
Who is that secretive businessman (William Wilder) with the limp? What’s giving his personal secretary (Ian Walls) jitters — his innocence or guilt?
Is the unflappable spinster (Marielle Rousseau) also a femme fatale? She has certainly captivated the Scottish colonel (Wilder). Could the efficient train conductor (Caleb Roman) have a motive to match his passkey means? Why does the brash American widow (Chris Caswell) need to be the center of attention? Will the scientifically trained countess (Abby Maurice) help solve the mystery or obscure the truth? For that matter, is Poirot too captivated by her to appraise her character? And though the train executive (Cael Barkman) is above suspicion as a colleague of Poirot’s, will she bollix his casework by deflecting any blame from her company?
In creating this pool of people, including one perfectly deserving murder victim, Ludwig eliminates some of Christie’s characters to make the play manageable and fuses a few to assign all the plot points. To fit so many people into a brisk play, he has to construct thin characters, but he makes up for it by emphasizing their comic idiosyncrasies. The dialogue is studded with zingers.
Director Jordan Gullikson has coaxed a delightful comic lightness from the whole cast. The actors primarily convey the elegance of a life lived in first class, even those who spend their time serving. These characters face the murder as crime connoisseurs, eager to show their heightened sensibilities while preserving an antiseptic distance from real gore. Gullikson dials up the entertainment each eccentric character can deliver.
Nagle gives Poirot a shining curiosity, brushing away other characters’ admiration of his fame to get down to his fascination with other people, which means peering clearly at each suspect even before the crime. Most fictional detectives have a little too much of the author’s mind powering them, and Poirot’s snappy reveal has some holes, but we overlook them for the elegance of the result and for Nagle’s grand precision in announcing his conclusions.
Caswell is brilliant as the brazen American tourist, wringing all the naïve friendliness out of a Minnesota accent while passing judgment on everyone.
Caswell is brilliant as the brazen American tourist, wringing all the naïve friendliness out of a Minnesota accent while passing judgment on everyone. Barkman, playing the train executive, gets a little lost in her French accent but compensates with elegant movement and vivid comic reactions. Roman is just the stolid conductor one craves in an emergency, and he doubles as a perfectly imperial waiter.
The actors are ably supported by costume designer Sarah Sophia Lidz, who never overlooks a detail. Along with a magnificent mustache, Poirot sports multiple monocles and magnifiers tucked into a stylish vest. The brassy American’s loud mouth is amplified by her big patterns and bold strings of pearls. The romantic colonel is rendered proper by his well-fitted tweeds, and the talented countess dresses to impress. Every costume tells a story as rich as the dialogue.
Ludwig’s adaptation premiered in 2017. The first movie version of the novel was released in 1974, so one might wonder why it took so long to bring such a crowd-pleaser to the theater. But the stage mechanics are daunting — what a book can do with description or a movie with editing, a play must put before our eyes. There’s no shortcut to creating a realistic train, and Vermont Stage provides a stunner.
To make the play effectively theatrical, Ludwig sets scenes in multiple locations on the train. Here scenic designer Jeff Modereger and the full technical crew excel. The train’s lounge car is sumptuously appointed, from window details to antimacassars on gorgeous upholstery. A little quick change converts it into two of the first-class bedrooms, and a final flourish produces a train corridor. None of these settings relies on abstract hints; each is fully realized, from louvered doors to armchairs, and viewers get a real feel for riding in such luxury.
Agatha Christie mysteries are soothing little puzzles, and this production is ideal light entertainment. While offering no clues, this reviewer does promise that the solution is quite clever. But the real beauty of the show resides in its visual splendor, comedy, accents, costumes and all-out characters. It’s lavish fun to ride this kind of first class. ➆
This article appears in Love & Marriage Issue • 2026.
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