A classic murder mystery with enduring appeal

As the Everyman prepares to stage an adaptation of Agatha Christie's timeless whodunnit, Murder on the Orient Express, JEFFREY DAVIES speaks to the man cast in the role of iconic Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot

- JEFFREY DAVIES

WINTER 1934 and an avalanche stops the Orient Express dead in its tracks. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed eight times, his door locked from the inside. Trapped in the snow with a killer on board, can the world’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, crack the case before the train reaches its destination?

Michael Maloney leads the cast as the celebrated Belgian detective Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express which takes to the stage at the Everyman in Cheltenham next week.

Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s greatest literary achievements, with a final twist that is among her very best. Gripping, tense and masterfully cryptic, this new production, adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Lucy Bailey, is “a deliciously thrilling ride and an ingenious murder mystery’, guaranteed to keep you guessing until the end of the line.

Even if they are not particular fans of Torquay-born author Agatha Christie or of her world-famous novel Murder on the Orient Express, most people are familiar with the author's name and with her, arguably, best-known and best-loved classic crime story I remarked to Michael Maloney ahead of the drama’s arrival at the Everyman.

What makes the story so revered and so well-loved still?

"I think people are absolutely intrigued by the nature of this whodunnit and how complex it can be. It provides you with that extraordinary ‘aha’ moment where you probably put the book down or stop watching the film and try to work out what is happening for yourself. Murder on the Orient Express just keeps you hooked. And indeed this stage production does too,” Michael told me enthusiastically.

“You think you are coming in for a rather reassuring evening but...”; the Bury-St-Edmunds-born actor said, stopping short of revealing any more for fear of spoiling the drama for anyone planning on going to see it.

And the famed sleuth himself?