Thursday, December 12, 2024
There was some trepidation about going to see the beloved 1937 Agatha Christie classic novel turned film “Death on the Nile,” as a world-premiere stage adaptation at Arena Stage. Fans of the of the queen of whodunits hoped the new version by Ken Ludwig would maintain the often melodramatic mannerisms and cool cutting polite civility of Christie’s multiple unique characters (and murder suspects) as well as the fashion of the time and the luxurious settings of this favorite mystery. How would they ever portray the drama of the scenes on the small luxurious cruise boat, in the massive Egyptian tombs and luxurious hotels that are the principal sites of the drama?
Arena Stage’s Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif and her team did it all superbly.
Set designer Alexander Dodge and projection designer Brittany Bland excelled. The sets actually brought gasps and “oohs and aahs” from the audience, especially the scenes in the massive Temple of Dendur. The luxurious wood-paneled cruise ship lounge and the outer promenade decks were constantly changing to follow the growing complicated murder plot. The extended stage projections of the Nile’s varied river landscape flowing slowly by on both sides of the boat gave a sensation of reality to the sets.
The costumes by Karen Perry were as sumptuous and delightful as they were numerous. They included all-white ensembles for the gentlemen and ladies for the pyramid visit, sequined evening dresses for the ladies (a different one or two each evening for cocktails and dining) and day suits and elegant casual dresses constantly changing as the sets and scenes changed. Dinner jackets fit the men’s varied characters and Christie’s fussy Belgian (not French) detective Hercule Poirot was always perfectly turned out in his immaculately correct tailored suits.
As Poirot, Armando Durán “est formidable!” A Broadway World review summarizes, “He has flair and panache. He knows how to underplay —a difficult secret sauce, actually a B-Belt skill in the craft of acting.“ Olivia Cygan (Ridgeway) and Katie Kleiger (her rival, Jackie de Bellefort) are both cool and dramatic in just the right mix. “ Nancy Robinette‘s enchanting Salomé Otterbourne simply overflows with three-dimensionality.”
While The Washington Post called the adaptation of “Death on the Nile” all a bit “fusty,” many in the audience found it good fun.
In an unusual twist at the end of the play, Duran’s Poirot turns into a narrator and commentator about the grim ending. He had a feeling of seeing “Romeo and Juliet” in an unguarded moment when in the first scene he chanced upon two unknown passionate lovers in front of a London phone booth. At the end of the play, with the two lovers’ self-sacrifice laying bloodily on the cruise ship’s lounge floor besides him, he reflects again on the Romeo and Juliet analogy and wonders if he had been more proactive about their plight he could have prevented the tragedy.