Death on the Nile brought to life in Torquay

For anyone of a certain age Death on the Nile, starring Peter Ustinov as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, was a staple film of bank holiday weekends, littered with stars and repeated endlessly. 

This, therefore, presents a challenge for anyone staging a version of any of the Queen or Crime’s better-known stories. 

Can they be adapted successfully for the stage and will an audience come and see it when it is quite likely us old crocodiles will know the story and most importantly ‘Whodunnit’?

I am pleased to say that, with the current production of Death on the Nile at Torquay’s Princess Theatre, the answer is ‘yes’ and ‘yes’. 

This is an extremely professional production, which is astutely cast, with beautiful costumes. Although there are a few changes to the story and characters, on the whole this is a great success and does not ruin the original in the way that some recent BBC television adaptations have.

Christie famously did not want any actor to play Poirot on the stage and as such, the play-version of this Egyptian classic, written by her, in 1948, featured an alternate detective called Canon Pennefather. 

This updated script is by Ken Ludwig, an American with a fantastic record of adapting everything from Sherlock Holmes to Shakespeare. 

He puts Hercule Poirot front and centre and from the off we are drawn into a conspiracy in which Mark Hadfield in the role invites the audience to collaborate with him to solve the crime. 

It is, of course, a great challenge to bring an original take to such a familiar character, but to my mind, Hadfield does it with aplomb. His Poirot is a mix between David Suchet and Albert Finney, not totally aping either actor, but barely showing any resemblance to the less impressive Kenneth Branagh version. 

He is ably assisted by Bob Brace in the role of Colonel Race, a sort-of quasi-Hastings character which he very much makes his own, helped by having a very large physical presence that compliments the more compact Poirot. 

Every cast member is striking and distinct and my only real quibble was Howard Gossington who plays a new character, Atticus Praed, looked far too young, particularly as he is the father of Ramses Paed (Nicholas Prasad) but looked almost the same age. 

Of course he might just have excellent genes, but this jarred in a very minor way. Equally Glynis Barber, better known as one half of the 1980’s TV show Dempsey and Makepeace, was perhaps too glamorous and attractive for the rather eccentric, barmy role of Salome Otterborne. However, neither actor might mind me saying they look too young or attractive. 

Terence Wilton is particularly good as the character of Septimus Troy, an old hammy actor, played very much in the style of a Christie archetype retired colonel and he brought some lovely light humour to an otherwise darkly atmospheric setting. By far the standout performance though is Esme Hough as the strikingly beautiful Jacqueline De Bellefort (Mia Farrow in the 1970’s film). She has real stage presence and brings a totally believable mix of disdain and frivolousness to the role and I’d liked to have seen more of her. 

When the weather is stormy and the news is depressing, what better solution is there then escaping into the world Christie. 

This show ticks all the right boxes and for once changes to the script are welcome. The set is effective, with swift scene changes and excellent use of sound and music. 

At one point I got very worried though that one of the main characters had died in an unexpected way in a sarcophagus. But this was a clever red herring and continued a theme of underlying Egyptian curses and that all was not what it seemed. 

The second half is more powerful than the first and the script builds to an impactful final scene which is handled nicely with a certain knowingness by Poirot, keeping us in on the fact that most of us sitting out in the audience have probably seen a few similar denouements before. 

My companion for the night, a Christie virgin, was totally thrown by the big plot twist. However, she also left the theatre saying she was going to take the book out of the library the next day. 

This is therefore not a completely perfect production, but if it can drive newcomers to go and read more Christie, it is definitely doing something right. For us older fans, weaned on bank-holiday re-runs, this is as good as you will probably get  particularly given the challenges of staging a show on a boat on a crocodile and murderer infested river. 

Death on The Nile runs until Saturday November 22 at the Princess Theatre in Torquay To book tickets visit ATGTICKETS.COM/Torquay