THEATRE REVIEW: Derby’s ‘Murder on the Nile’ fun, ingenious

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October 11, 2009

By CHARLES WHALEY The News and Tribune Sun Oct 11, 2009, 01:23 AM EDT

Oh, Agatha, how you do pile on the clues and the twists in your satisfyingly old-fashioned mysteries such as “Murder on the Nile,” now being performed by Derby Dinner Playhouse with all due reverence for the genre.

Producing director Bekki Jo Schneider and her resolute cast plough with absolute seriousness through Dame Agatha Christie’s convoluted plot crammed with stock characters. That makes the cliché dialogue all the more fun.

Scenic designer Lee Buckholz’s Egyptian cruise ship with ceiling fans, wicker furniture, potted ferns, and bells that rich passengers ring to summon waiters with cool alcoholic drinks immediately sets the mood for the intrigue that leads to more than one death by gunshot.

Dame Agatha excised her famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot from the play (though he was in the film version that starred Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, and Maggie Smith). She left it up to her other characters confined on the boat to solve the murders.

Look who’s on board and you can imagine the resultant fireworks:

• rich English girl Kay Mostyn (Janet Essenpreis)

• her new and far-from-rich husband Simon Mostyn (Matt Wallace)

• Simon’s former betrothed and Kay’s ex-best friend Jacqueline DeSeverac (Tina Jo Wallace)

• snobbish Miss ffoliot-ffoulkes (Rita Thomas) and her niece Christina (Michelle Johnson)

• Kay’s French maid Louise (Abigail Bailey Maupin)

• aristocratic Communist William Smith (Scott Michael)

• Kay’s clerical guardian Canon Ambrose Pennefather (J. R. Stuart)

• Dr. Bessner, a physician (David Myers)

Also on hand are a steward (Jon Huffman) and a turbaned crew member (Tony Smith), exotically garbed to provide local color. Butch Sager’s summery period costumes are spot on.

Trouble is brewing from the moment the characters start congregating on the boat. It’s clear that spurned Jacqueline is stalking the honeymooners and has a gun in her purse.

In a drunken moment she fires on deck at Simon, who strangely is not too upset since she merely nicked his leg. But she couldn’t have put a bullet through the sleeping Kay in her cabin, could she, since she was in Christina’s company the rest of that evening? Never fear. The puzzle is ingeniously solved. Dame Agatha has a way of foiling expectations.

“Murder on the Nile” runs through November 15. Information is at 812-288-8281 or www.derbydinner.com.

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THEATRE REVIEW: Derby’s ‘Murder on the Nile’ fun, ingenious

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