REVIEW: Circa’s ‘Orient Express’ a thrilling ride
This has been a very emotional past couple weeks for Rock Island’s Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse.
On Jan. 8, Carolyn Hitchcock – the wife of Circa owner/producer Denny Hitchcock – passed away at 82 at her Sherrard home, surrounded by her loving family, including son Brett, who’s the theater director of audience development.
Just four days after the memorial service for the beloved kindergarten teacher, Denny at last Friday’s opening night of the new production of “Murder on the Orient Express,” remarked this was the first opening night Carolyn could not attend in 47 years, since they founded the theater in 1977.
The 2017 sophisticated stage adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie 1934 murder mystery – by Tony-Award nominee Ken Ludwig – is given a characteristically passionate, stellar and authentic performance by a cast of 10 excellent actors, including several Circa veterans. They seem to all rise beautifully to the occasion, understanding the weight of this time in the theater’s history, and the iconic nature of this spellbinding story.
Circa favorite Tom Walljasper is tremendous – focused, aristocratic, commanding and mesmerizing – as the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, called back from Istanbul to London on urgent business. He intends to book a first-class compartment on the Orient Express, run by his former friend and colleague Monsieur Bouc (enthusiastically played by a strong Kyle DeFauw).
Although the train is surprisingly full, Bouc manages to secure Poirot a spot in the first-class cabin, and while aboard, Poirot meets a host of peculiar, colorful characters: an aging Russian princess, her Swedish companion, a Hungarian countess, a Minnesota housewife, a Scottish colonel, an English governess, a French conductor, a disagreeable American businessman and his anxious secretary.
During their travels, the angry businessman, Samuel Ratchett, corners Poirot and demands that the detective investigate a series of ominous letters that have been sent to Ratchett, threatening his life. Poirot refuses, but after a snowdrift halts the Orient Express in its tracks, Ratchett is found stabbed eight times in his locked train compartment. Poirot is tasked by Bouc to solve the murder, as the killer could still be in their midst.
With accents befitting their roles and fabulous costumes (designed by Bradley Robert Jensen) these strangers on a train seem like they’re from a parallel “Clue” universe and they’re ultimately bound by a tragic tie.
Black-and-white projections
One of many reasons why this show should not be missed is a series of captivating black-and-white video projections (above the stunning, imposing set) by Khalil Hacker.
We’re introduced to the motive for murder at the start when we see the young Daisy Armstrong on screen (played by Lucy Hauskins, daughter of head Bootlegger Brad Hauskins, at Davenport’s Renwick Mansion) being kidnapped from her home. She was ultimately killed by the character here named Ratchett – a sleazy, menacing Mafioso type (real name Cassetti) – played by a dark, threatening Tristan Tapscott.
In a 2022 interview with playwright Ken Ludwig, who adapted the Christie story, he said he chose it “because it is such a stunning mystery in so many ways. The setting is exotic, the characters are colorful, and though the names are changed, it’s based on an historical event—the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby—which dominated the news at the time the book was written. That historical context gives the story special consequence: this shocking crime has gone unsolved, and the killer is aboard the Orient Express.”
Since Ratchett is found dead on the train fairly early on, Tapscott does double duty as the much kinder, gentler colonel who is (appropriately) in love with the charming governess, Mary Debenham (Savannah Bay Strandin, Tapscott’s real-life wife).
Another Circa vet – Kimberly VanDerGinst – fairly chews the scenery as the loud drama queen Helen Hubbard from Minnesota. She seems like she could have easily stepped out of the “Church Basement Ladies” series for this far less comforting story.
The energetic, dedicated cast is completed by Cara Moretto, Bear Manescalchi, Quinnie Rodman, Shelley Walljasper and Micah Weese.
Precision and flair
Conducting this cacophonous symphony with precision, flair and compassion is director Corinne Johnson, the former St. Ambrose University theater professor who most recently helmed the theater’s 2021 musical “Disenchanted” and whose additional area credits have included directing “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “The Glass Menagerie” for the Mississippi Bend Players.
Johnson (a longtime SAU theater professor) has taught and directed at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minn., the past two years. She last directed at Circa in fall 2021 in the Disney spoof “Disenchanted.”
Led by the patient, insightful Walljasper as Poirot, Johnson smartly highlights the drama and emotion of the story, which is divided neatly with another attempted murder at the close of Act I.
Hacker’s atmospheric projections reflect passing scenery, including snow drifts, and many very brief, filmed reenactments in Act II accentuate Poirot’s recounting of events. And that’s super cool, something I’ve never seen at Circa, and a mini-movie in itself (in fits and starts).
The super talented crew here includes sound designer Aaron Randolph III, lighting designer Heather Hauskins, production manager Jeremy Littlejohn – and above all, the gorgeous, impressive work of set designer/scenic artist Becky Meissen.
The huge main set piece is rotated throughout the show – one side displaying the sumptuous, elegant dining car, with its red curtains, chairs and tablecloths, and the other shows a number of the sleeping compartments.
The always dependable, entertaining Bootleggers also deliver a great pre-show (I wish was longer than 15 minutes) with a collection of train-inspired songs – including “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Morning Train,” “City of New Orleans,” “Peace Train,” “City of New Orleans” and “Long Train Running.”
“Murder on the Orient Express” will be presented at Circa through March 2 on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 5:30 p.m., and Wednesday matinées at 1:15 p.m. Pre-show entertainment featuring the theater’s wait staff, The Bootleggers, also will precede all performances.
Ticket prices are $63 for the Friday-to-Sunday dinner-and-show productions and $56 for all Wednesday performances. Reduced prices for students, seniors, and groups of 12 or more also are available for all performances.
Reservations are available through the Circa ’21 box office at 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island, or by calling 309-786-7733 ext. 2.
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