Summary
All aboard! The exotic Orient Express is hurtling down the tracks… to a murder! Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express hits SPTC’s stage with a train full of suspects and an alibi for each one. Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is filled to capacity, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. Isolated, with a killer on the loose, Detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer–before he or she decides to strike again. Ken Ludwig’s clever adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express boasts all the glamour, intrigue, and suspense of Dame Agatha’s celebrated novel, with a healthy dose of humor to quicken the pace. SPTC audiences are in for a suspenseful, thrilling ride aboard the legendary Orient Express! Don’t go off the rails – hop on board today!
reviews
“Strikes the perfect balance of the cerebral and the comic. Get on board – it’s a great ride.” – Houstonian Magazine
“The fast-moving, powerful theatrical locomotive Murder on the Orient Express will get you to a better place, and slay you merrily en route.” – Hartford Courant
“Agatha Christie is not the bestselling novelist in history for nothing, and Ken Ludwig’s adaptation strikes the perfect balance of the cerebral and the comic. Get on board – it’s a great ride.” – Houstonian Magazine
“I felt myself leaning in with the entire audience when detective Poirot tells us he’s figured out who did it. What a climax! When the train whistle blows in the theater, all we need to do is sit down, shut up and enjoy.” – The Houston Chronicle
“A love letter to the original material, with a swift moving script adaptation by Ken Ludwig... Everything you could want – broadly drawn characters, exotic settings, and a spectacular murder with no shortage of suspects.” – BroadwayWorld
“The fast-moving, powerful theatrical locomotive Murder on the Orient Express will get you to a better place, and slay you merrily en route.” – Hartford Courant
“Agatha Christie is not the bestselling novelist in history for nothing, and Ken Ludwig’s adaptation strikes the perfect balance of the cerebral and the comic. Get on board – it’s a great ride.” – Houstonian Magazine
“I felt myself leaning in with the entire audience when detective Poirot tells us he’s figured out who did it. What a climax! When the train whistle blows in the theater, all we need to do is sit down, shut up and enjoy.” – The Houston Chronicle
“A love letter to the original material, with a swift moving script adaptation by Ken Ludwig... Everything you could want – broadly drawn characters, exotic settings, and a spectacular murder with no shortage of suspects.” – BroadwayWorld
About the playwright
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Agatha ChristieAgatha Christie (1890-1976) is the author not only of The Mousetrap, the longest running stage production in history, but also Witness for the Prosecution and And Then There Were None, to name but a few of her greatest stage successes. Her novels have sold more than 2 billion copies around the world, and she is only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare.
Born in 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England, to an American father and English mother, she wrote her first play, Black Coffee, (the only play in which she chose to feature Poirot) in 1930, having been disappointed by the way The Murder of Roger Ackroyd had been adapted into Alibi in 1928. She adapted her bestselling novel And Then There Were None for stage in 1943, giving it a different ending, followed by, in quick succession, Appointment with Death (1945), Murder on the Nile (1946) and The Hollow (1951). With The Mousetrap (1952), Witness for the Prosecution (1953), and Spider's Web (1954), she became the only female playwright to have three plays running in the West End at the same time. Later plays include Towards Zero(1956) co-adapted with Gerald Verner, Verdict (1958) possibly her most unusual play, Go Back for Murder (1960), and Rule of Three (1962) a series of three one-act plays. After a hugely successful career and a wonderful life, Ms. Christie died peacefully on 12 January 1976. You can read Agatha Christie's own account of her life in An Autobiography, which was published after her death in 1977. Agatha Christie Limited (ACL) has been managing the literary and media rights to Agatha Christie's works around the world since 1955, when the company was set up by Christie herself. ACL works with the best talents on stage, in film, television, publishing and on digital platforms to ensure that Christie’s work continues to reach new audiences in innovative ways and to the highest standard. The company is currently managed by Christie’s great-grandson, James Prichard. Recent theatre collaborations include the critically-acclaimed Witness for the Prosecution at County Hall in London, working with Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions, and Murder on the Orient Express adapted by Ken Ludwig, with productions at McCarter Theatre in Princeton and Hartford, Connecticut, USA. ACL also works closely with international theatre companies developing in-territory stage productions. |
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