MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS: All aboard a post-show chat
- Cathy Street
- 23 hours ago
- 6 min read
This round table discussion format was born from the desire to have a few people see a theatrical performance together and dig deeper into that shared experience. This is not intended to be a review or critique; it is members of the theatre community sharing their thoughts and experience. When people go to a show, there are many great conversations that happen after. This is ours.
At the table:
Josh Bailey (JB): Has been an actor, director, and three time writer in Wilmington Theatre for 12 years and has had the pleasure of being involved in over 30 local productions. Most recently he directed What the Constitution Means to Me for Big Dawg Productions with Cathy as starring in the leading role.
Alisa Harris (AH): Mom, actor, artist, and producer in Wilmington, NC. Visit www.alisaharris.actor
Cathy Street (CS): In her over 30 years of professional arts experience, Cathy has worn many hats including director, musical director, producer, actor and teaching artist. She is founder of Street Theatre Company in Nashville, TN where she also served as Artistic Director for 10 years. She works with various local theatre companies here in Wilmington.
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS: GET ON BOARD!
Three of us were lucky enough to attend the dress rehearsal of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” adapted by Ken Ludwig and produced by Thalian Association Community Theatre. The set up? A snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. By the morning one passenger lies dead in their compartment, the door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, the passengers rely on detective Hercule Poirot to identify the murderer—in case he or she decides to strike again.
Cathy Street (CS): Ok! So what resonated for you about what you just experienced?
Alisa Harris (AH): I loved the Ludwig script, the writing was very clever and tight.
CS: Agreed. Major kudos go to the direction by Cat Thomas and the actors because with that writing style and pace, if the direction or the acting was lethargic, I could see it falling flat but they nailed it.
AH: Yeah, if they didn't get the comedy—but luckily, they hit on some pretty sharp comedic senses. I actually feel bad for them because they say a bad dress rehearsal means a good opening and this dress was great!
CS: Especially considering they lost two days of tech at Thalian Hall due the snowstorm! What they did in that amount of time is pretty incredible. I thought Cat’s direction was really fantastic. It was clear to me in the audience that everyone on stage was "doing the same play." By that I mean the style and vision were obviously articulated so well that there was a unity in the physicality that people were using, the performance style…they were really simpatico. And because everyone on stage seemed to understand and commit to that vision, it was a very cohesive experience for me in the audience.
Josh Bailey (JB): I think the moment that really stood out to me, where I sat forward, was the denouement scene of Poirot unraveling the mystery.
CS: I did, too!!
AH: I was sitting right in between you, and you both leaned forward at the exact same time!
JB: That was where it all clicked. The pacing was perfection there. The lighting was great. All the performances locked into place. That was the sign of, like, “Okay, you guys are ready to go now.” Because that moment, which is so pivotal in that kind of script, was perfectly staged.
CS: It was so beautifully done—clever and interesting, and true to the Agatha Christie's vibe. At that moment, all of the tech elements also really got to show off. And to me, the tech elements were a really integral and awesome part of the show. I am always a huge fan of Josh Zieseniss’s lighting. His colors are so rich and vibrant.
JB: And the sound design by Jonathan Graves, just from the very opening moment of the train drifting into the station immediately set the tone of where you were. I think that was really fantastic.
AH: And having the radio be a speaker placed in the opera box…!
CS: Oh, and the underscoring! We as audiences are so used to hearing a soundtrack in movies and I think that that's one reason that it's harder nowadays to put on straight plays, because we're missing something that we don't know we're missing if that makes sense. So I just loved what the music added to the entire experience.
JB: It gives a very film-like quality to the production. It was a really nice touch in the moments that they used it. And I loved that they had snow!
CS: And Ben Fancy’s gorgeous set.
JB: I really liked the staging. I thought they used really, really smart use of space, and liked the way the set pieces moved around. It was clever-though part of it was a little far back from where we were, so we couldn't see elements of it.
AH: And it will probably tighten up a little bit more but even though there wasn't a narrow hallway, they were still moving past each other tightly to emphasize the close quarters.
JB: That was the only thing about movement and setting was that sometimes the carriage is 700 feet wide, sometimes it's 10. Sometimes widening the space makes a lot of sense (like in the reveal scene), but they could play up the closeness of the space more. I was slightly missing that feeling of claustrophobia of being trapped somewhere. But again, they had only been in the space for a couple of days, which is so hard when you're moving from a rehearsal hall to a large stage like Thalian.
CS: Which maybe could have been helped by everything being moved downstage? So we could feel that claustrophobia with them. As far as performances, I have to start with Chase Harrison as Detective Poirot. His mannerisms, the quirkiness, his complete control of the stage … I thought he was perfection.
JB: And Josh Hodge as Monsiour Bouc was fantastic. His comedic timing was on point in every scene that he was in.
CS: The dynamic and comedic timing between him and Poirot was so good.
AH: I think the double casting was interesting. I did a little poking around and traditionally, a lot of places will double cast a couple of the roles but in a mystery show, you wonder—is that a red herring?
CS: I was thinking, “Are we (the audience) supposed to know that it's the same person and they aren’t…?” In a mystery everything becomes a question or a possible clue.
JB: I thought Tamica Katzmann’s Countess was really fantastic and Deangelo Motley as the Conductor was incredibly endearing and charming.
CS: Yes, he stood out to me as well, as did Maria-Liusa Winslow. She showed great range in her performance.
AH: Yes, and I loved seeing new faces onstage. Barring one somewhat lackluster performance (on dress rehearsal night) they all were strong.
CS: And I was impressed that while the accents might have been a little inconsistent (this is a VERY challenging accent show!) for the most part, I could understand everything very clearly. There were only a few times I felt things got garbled and I lost a little bit of potentially important information.
AH: Shout out to Reilly Callaghan as the dialect coach. There were just a couple of times when some of the actors’ accents dropped out when they got emotional, for example.
CS: It’s hard because I want to say more specific things but being a mystery, I don’t want to give anything away!
JB: Yes. Let’s just say the times when certain characters had transformative moments were really powerful.
CS: Agreed. Really great work by the actors particularly at the end of the show. And Poirot’s moments of truth added such validity to the piece as a whole. While the show was comedic and quirky, at the end I really was left with the question of humanity and right and wrong and justice. That's what drives Poirot and torments him. I thought that was played so well. It resonated for me that—at the end of the day—you're still talking about a murder and justice.
AH: And if we get rid of law and order, what do we have as a society?
JB: Very, timely.
CS: Indeed. What a great RIDE this show was! (See what I did there?)
"Murder on the Orient Express" runs February 6-15, 2026 at Thalian Hall. For tickets visit www.thalianhall.org.