Jeffrey Blair Cornell Gives a Passionate Performance as Hercule Poiret in PRC's Murder on the Orient Express
This article was published by Triangle Review on 7 March 2024.
PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of Ken Ludwig's 2017 stage adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, based on the 1934 novel by Agatha Christie, offers Agatha Christie fans the opportunity to introduce her work to the young people in their lives (PlayMakers recommends 10 years and older), most of whom have likely never heard of the prolific author.
The play opens on a small rocking horse in the center of an empty stage, the ghostly sound of a singing child echoing throughout the theater. Moments after the rocking horse appears, it is whisked to the back of the stage and beyond, and detective Hercule Poirot, played by Jeffrey Blair Cornell, walks onto the stage. Cornell's French -- err, Belgian -- accent is impeccable and, with his trademark upward-curled mustache, endearing as he introduces himself and the mystery that is about to unfold. Throughout the production, Cornell plays the somewhat vain, aging bachelor with the passion and determination for which the detective, who has appeared in 33 of Christie's novels, is renowned.
One by one, the audience is introduced to the other characters, all of whom are first-class passengers on the Orient Express, a luxury train leaving Istanbul that day. Every character is eccentric, and the actors all play them with aplomb and well-rehearsed accents: French, British, Russian, Scottish, German, Hungarian, American -- the accents alone are reason enough for a theater student to study this production. Kudos to vocal coach Katie Cunningham.
Hope Alexander's portrayal of the wealthy and elderly Princess Dragomiroff is palpably cold and distant. Jim Roof's rendition of Samuel Ratchett, the business-like American mobster, is reminiscent of James Gandolfini in the hit series The Sopranos.
Matthew Donahue's burly representation and rolling Scottish accent as Colonel Arbuthnot is strong and charismatic. Gwendolyn Schwinke's and Adam Valentine's roles as the bumbling Greta Ohlsson and Hector MacQueen, respectively, are comical yet believable. And Michel the Conductor, played by Reez Bailey; Mary Debenham, portrayed by Saleemah Sharpe; and Countess Andrenyi, played by Hayley Cartee, are all true to their written characters and purposes.
But the highlights of the show are Julia Gibson's Helen Hubbard, Jeffrey Meanza's Monsieur Bouc, and Jeffrey Blair Cornell's Hercule Poirot. With her stereotypical American devil-may-care attitude and blunt verbosity, Gibson tickles the audience's funny bone every time she appears. And the kindred spirits of Monsieur Bouc and Detective Poirot are more than additive when Meanza and Cornell are together on stage. Scenic designer Tony Cisek's set is an equally strong character, as the same luxurious furniture and gold-framed representations of doorways are manipulated to create altogether different scenes -- a restaurant, a train platform, the common and private rooms of the train -- throughout the production.
Director Tracy Bersley can stand proud with her PlayMakers' main-stage directorial debut with Ken Ludwig's stage adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. This production is a clean, family-friendly rendition of the 1934 drama that is, no doubt, true to Agatha Christie's vision, and that is sure to garner audience interest in embarking on a real-life luxury train excursion in the present tense.
