Mark Hadfield’s Hercule Poirot: Immaculate investigations in Death On The Nile. Picture: Manuel Harlan
WE know of Agatha Christie’s monumental achievements, but what of Ken Ludwig, whose contribution to Fiery Angel’s European premiere of his adaptation of Death On The Nile is of equal significance?
Born in York – of the Pennsylvania, not Yorkshire, variety – he is “America’s preeminent comic playwright”, as well as author, screenwriter and director, whose work has been performed in 30-plus countries in more than 20 languages.
Screwball comedies are a specialism, but he has carved out a niche too in putting his stamp on Christie’s thrillers, working in tandem again with director Lucy Bailey and producers Fiery Angel after their sold-out collaborations on And Then There Were None in 2023 and Murder On The Orient Express in 2025.
Death On The Nile is his most humorous yet. Par example, if you have never seen Belgian detective Hercule Poirot wiggle and jiggle with his cane while talking of rumpy-pumpy, now is your chance in a play as full of punchlines as suspense and murder.
Indeed, Ludwig even branches out into meta-theatre as Mark Hadfield’s Poirot and Bob Barrett’s Colonel Race form not only a partnership in crime-solving but also a comic double act.
When Colonel Race reveals his exasperation at the tradition of Poirot rounding up everyone to deliver his whodunit verdict, Hadfield’s Poirot counters: “I love it!” We love it too, of course, hence the typically packed audience on Wednesday night, none more excited than young Charlie in the stalls row in front, as the next generation joins the Christie fan club.
Mark Hadfield’s Hercule Poirot, left, Esme Hough’s Jacqueline De Bellefort, Nye Occomore’s Simon Doyle and Libby Alexandra-Cooper’s Linnet Ridgeway in Death On The Nile. Picture: Manuel Harlan
Bailey, Ludwig and Hadfield make for a playful, yet also serious triumvirate at the heart of Death On The Nile, the balance just right, so that the tension still cranks up but the humour works a treat too, serving as comic relief rather than being irreverent.
Death On The Nile is later-days Poirot when everything is turning as grey as his little cells of logic and brain power, as he contemplates retirement and his luxury paddle steamer cruise beneath the Egyptian sun is for rest and recuperation in the affable company of Colonel Race.
Bailey’s productions opens with the familiar silhouette of Hadfield’s Poirot in dapper hat and coat on a railway platform as Esme Hough’s Jacqueline De Bellefort is mid-clinch with Nye Occomore’s Simon Doyle. It will not end well, his instinct lets us know.
Whoosh, the plot thickens at a meet-the-cast party at the British Museum to mark the imminent return of a sarcophagus to Egypt on board the SS Karnak. Mike Britton’s superbly adaptable set now transforms into the two decks of the steamer, from which no-one can escape in transit.
His use of sliding slatted doors facilitates creating differing bedroom cabins, with connecting balconies, while Oliver Fenwick’s lighting then shines through the slats to add to the air of mystery (along with Bailey’s further use of figures in silent silhouette, or even whispering in an ear while moving furniture in scene changes). Mic Pool’s sound design is vital to the rising sense of claustrophobia too.
Further scenes take place to the front of the sliders, culminating in the aforementioned Poirot dressing-down. On the subject of dressing, everyone is dressing up the max in Britton’s gorgeous designs for the women and elegant suits for the men.
Double act: Bob Barrett’s Colonel Race and Mark Hadfield’s Hercule Poirot in Death On The Nile
If one triangle – Bailey, Ludwig and Hadfield – is crucial to the style and interpretation of content, then another is the play’s fulcrum. Hough’s Jacqueline, by now jilted by Occomore’s Doyle in favour of heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Libby Alexandra-Cooper) has followed their every honeymoon step and now on to the steamer, where her choice of colour (red) spells danger.
Alexandra-Cooper’s neurotic Linnet has every right to be nervous, and not only because of Jacqueline’s unwanted presence. What happens next, your reviewer will not divulge, but only the sarcophagus is not under suspicion when the inevitable murder takes place.
Bailey’s cast has so many performances to enjoy, from Alexandra –Cooper’s haunted Linnet to Nicholas Prasad’s shy doctor Ramses Praed, topped off by the comic interplay of Terence Wilton’s veteran theatre darling Septimus Troy and Glynis Barber’s chameleon society butterfly Salome Otterbourne.
Above all else, Hadfield’s Poirot may have a limp from a wartime injury but he has a spring in his impish step, yet he is still fastidious and stern in conducting his investigations, capturing the overlapping tones of Ludwig’s script. Poirot has a closing point to make too: the importance of love and how it should not be cheated.
It would be a crime to miss Fiery Angel’s Death On The Nile, so full of style and wit.
Fiery Angel in Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile, Grand Opera House, York, tonight and tomorrow, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mark Britton’s slatted set design for the paddle steamer in Death On The Nile. Picture: Manuel Harlan