Murder on the Orient Express—Lakewood Theatre Company—Lake Oswego, OR

                      All Aboard For Murder!

    This classic mystery by Agatha Christie is adapted to the stage by Ken Ludwig and directed by David Sikking.  It is playing at Lakewood’s space, 368 S. State St. in Lake Oswego, through February 13^th.  Note that Covid protocols are in place such as vaccine cards, masks, etc.  For more information, call 503-635-3901 or go to their website at www.lakewood-center.org

All Aboard For Murder!

    There have been 3 film adaptations of this classic who-done-it.  Of course, there is the BBC’s version with probably the best of the Hercule Poirot’s, David Suchet. But also Albert Finny gave it a good try in the Hollywood, all-star cast version and, recently, Kenneth Branaugh gave it a go.

    Staging her works is never an easy job, especially when the action changes often, but in Lakewood’s version, they do an admiral job with scenic design by Demetri Pavlatos, with special kudos to the set change crew.  The narrative starts out 3 years back with the kidnapping and murder of a 5 year old girl, Daisy Armstrong, from a wealthy American family.  Then jumping ahead to 1935 and then aboard the famous Orient Express train, on board which is the famous Belgin detective, Poirot (Mark Schwahn).

    The rest of the action is on this train, which ends up being snowbound in short order.  And, almost immediately that night, is the murder of a wealthy businessman, American tycoon, Samuel Ratchett (Alan H. King), who is stabbed to death multiple times in his room.  And since this is a mystery, more of the story I cannot tell you, but know there are a lot of “red herrings (false clues)” which Christie is famous for.

    But I will give you the rest of the cast, all suspects. There is M. Bouc (Gary Powell), the owner of the Orient Express and an old friend of Poirot’s; an aging, erasable Russian princess (Vana O’Brien); her Swedish, naïve companion (Caren Graham; a helpful, Hungarian countess (Kelsey Glasser); a chatty, Midwest, American housewife (Marilyn Stacey); a pompous, Scottish colonel (Tom Walton); a demure, English governess (Kylie Jenifer Rose); a handy, French conductor (Tom Mounsey) and Ratchett’s timid assistant (Matt Sunderland).

    And so, “the game's afoot” with this array of blooms in a garden of evil.  The questions one must ask themselves are who of these folks has a connection to the murdered man?  Why did the victim have so many varied knife wounds on his chest?  And who is the mystery man in uniform that seems to be lurking about the train?  This is a dandy who-done-it and presents a unique dilemma for Poirot in the end.

    Among the stand-out performances are the veteran actress, O’Brien, Graham as her mousey maid, and especially Stacey as the annoying housewife.  Sikking has a tough job on his hands by coordinating all the action and he does a terrific job of it.  And a special shout-out to Rose, who has the double duty of actress and dialect coach.  Considering the amount of nationalities in this cast, she had her hands full and does an outstanding job of nailing them all down!

    I recommend this show.  If you do choose to see it, please tell them Dennis sent you.

--DJS