Local Theatre’s Latest Production Goes Off The Rails With Murder and Morality

Left to right we have Gregory L. Girty as Monsieur Bouc, Sarah FitzGerald as Helen Hubbard, and Brandon Chappus as Hercule Poirot.

With death on the menu, a local theatre is hoping audiences are all aboard for their latest play.

Adapting Agatha Christie’s famous novel Murder on the Orient Express, Korda Productions will soon present their take on the story. Debuting at the KordaZone Theatre (located at 2025 Seminole Street) on Friday March 28, the three week run is set to offer suspense and a complex tale of morality.

Not a fan of the genre himself, the latter aspect is what pushed Dean Valentino to direct at Korda again.

“This show was proposed to me by a friend and I had never read it,” he said. “After reading it, I thought the perfect place to do it would be Korda because the stage itself is just about the right size for us to take on this story. I’ve said before that murder mysteries, especially on stage, were never something I was terribly fond of. After reading this story and the novel however, I realized the murder mystery wasn’t at the heart of the theme — it was the moral conundrum faced by the characters in the play. That intrigued me a great deal.”

Using Ken Ludwig’s adaptation, the story centres around the Orient Express being stopped by a snow drift shortly after midnight. Waking up the next morning, everyone soon realizes that an American tycoon riding the train has been brutally murdered. Not knowing the culprit’s motives or if they’ll strike again, the passengers must rely on Detective Hercule Poirot to identify the killer in their midst. Coupled with the glamour, intrigue and suspense of the novel, this version of the story also contains a healthy dose of humour to quicken the pace further.

Directing a play at Korda for the first time since Othello 10-years-ago, Valentino had a big task ahead of him. Needing at least 10 people, auditions began in November. Citing it as his hardest play to cast, 43 actors turned out for 10 parts that were stretched out to 12.

Despite the talent on display, only eight men turned out for the audition. While being given an embarrassment of riches in terms of sheer ability, this meant Valentino didn’t have a large pool to choose from for the lead role.

Even so, the choice became a lot clearer as he watched actors audition to play Poirot.

“Casting the lead character was tricky,” said the director. “There were a number of actors who showed up to audition for the role and each had some very interesting qualities. Still, I needed a versatile enough actor who could play both intellectual and emotional — sometimes within the same sentence. That’s where Brandon [Chappus] came in. I have worked with him before and appreciated his respect for the text, his interest in searching subtext and character background, and his willingness to work with the director to mine the details of the script as deep as they can take it. From there, he went even further, bringing brought elements of his own life and perspectives to the character which just made his portrayal all the more rich for the audience.”

After picking Chappus to play Poirot, Valentino then focused on other roles. Although he was the perfect choice, the lead actor’s youth meant the director had to scale down the ages of his supporting cast as well. This meant ruling out several others he’d previously worked with because they no longer fit this restriction.

Once these issues were sorted out and everyone was cast however, rehearsals began at the end of 2024. Starting once a week, this part of the process grew as Valentino was directing another play that opened in mid-January.

Focusing on ethical questions in the story, cast members soon opened the director’s eyes to another important element. Even though Poirot remains the central figure in Murder on the Orient Express, the women surrounding him are very powerful and largely control what he does.

Upon realizing this, Valentino worked to give these women and other scenes some added importance.

“One of the unique things we found during rehearsals was the prevalence of extremely strong female characters,” said Valentino. “We decided to focus in on this and bring that theme forward, which was extremely easy to do with the talented actors that are in the play. It was as if the actors and myself intuitively knew that the strong female characters needed to be given more prominence. As we talked about it openly, we focused on elements of certain scenes and how particular pieces of text spoke to the importance of this theme. It became quite a wonderful exploration process with the cast.”

Other elements were also inserted organically as actors developed their characters. Not wanting to impede the exploration of each role, Valentino initially decided not to include accents. As his cast began fleshing out their characters though, the director reversed course as they were being done well without taking away from performances. Approaching it this way has only created another layer of authenticity beyond everyone’s initial work.

Keeping this attention to detail created some challenges with other aspects of the play however.

“The KordaZone Theatre stage is very versatile,” said the director. “At the same time, it’s very limiting in the fact that there are no wings to play with. However, the size of the stage is just about the size of one train car on the Orient Express so that wasn’t a difficult thing to get around. The biggest challenge was that there are a number of different scenes in prominent areas of the train, which is a little difficult in terms of trying to imply a different train car with the space available.

To deal with this limitation, crew members had to get creative. Making the most of the available space, the set consists of three revolving flats. One side will have painted bedrooms with the other being painted to make up the non-window side of a dining car.

Needing to transport audiences into the 30’s, Valentino’s crew also came through to provide immersion in other ways.

“The lighting will be simple but important to tell parts of this story, especially act 2 where the colour of light is very important to the specifics of the scene,” he said. “Props, costumes and sound are all incredibly important to this show and the work that has been done by cast, crew and the amazing Karen Kilbride on costumes will really speak to the time. Couple that with Gabriela Tijardovic’s hair styling and the audience will really enjoy the presentation of the time period.”

Taking place at KordaZone Theatre, Murder on the Orient Express will be performed on March 28, 29, 30, April 3, 4, , 10, 11 and 12. All showtimes are 8 p.m. except for the March 30 matinee at 2. General admission tickets are $25 with a $5 discount for students and seniors. Advance orders can be made via telephone at 226-674-1002 or online. Tickets are also available at the door (cash and debit only) with April 3 being pay-what-you-can and April 10 being scent-free performances respectively. Concessions will also be open at every show (cash and debit only.) This production is also being presented through special arrangement with Concord Theatricals.

As a culmination of everyone’s work, the play promises to entertain while approaching the material from a unique perspective.

“It’s an easy night out at the theatre,” said Valentino. “The content is not too difficult. Most of us know the story, but you’re able to see local theatre, the amazing actors and crew members who have put a great deal of time into asking you to join us on this trip back in time. This story is truly a morality tale. Even though it is technically a murder mystery, this story looks at how one event can have the butterfly effect through so many lives that are connected. There’s the importance of how our actions ripple through so many more communities than just our immediate influences.”

For more information on about Korda Productions and their upcoming shows, those interested can visit their website.