Audience Travels First Class On Christie's Nile

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday July 26, 2006

Ken Longworth

REVIEW

MURDER ON THE NILE

Presented by: Intimate Theatre Company (4956 1263)

Venue: St Stephen's Anglican Church Hall, Adamstown

Season: July 21 to August 12

MURDER on the Nile, one of the most rarely performed of Agatha Christie's adaptations of her novels for the stage, gets first-class treatment in this production.

The story sets the usual Christie mixture of jealousy, revenge and murder among the cosmopolitan passengers on a luxury Egyptian river cruise ship in the 1930s.

The first view of the elegant timber-panelled saloon where the passengers congregate shows an impressive attention to detail by director Timothy Blundell, designer Chris Bird (who also built it with Brian Lowe) and decorator Rebecca Sheldon, whose paintings based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead adorn the walls.

Then, as the passengers make their entrance, the audience laps up the stylish 1930s clothes that Anne-Maree Adams and Maggie Brown have assembled and the period-perfect hair styles by Alex Newton and Bev Zuber.

And, as the story develops, every member of the cast delivers a performance that is enjoyable and true to the spirit of Christie's often elaborate whodunits.

The problem here is that the story isn't that elaborate. There are some of the usual Christie twists but it is not hard from early in the piece to work out who is going to be the victim and then to deduce the what and why of the murder.

And the characters are decidedly stock figures, even by Christie's standards. Some would be downright tiresome if it weren't for the skills of the actors. They show how even a mediocre text can be made entertaining.

Christie, for example, trundles on stage that most stereotyped of Englishwomen, the wealthy middle-aged spinster who complains about foreigners and who treats the shy and poor young relative accompanying her like dirt.

Sue McEwen, however, uses vocal intonations, eye movements and hand flourishes to make the appalling Miss ffoliot ffoulkes both amusing and a favourite audience candidate for the chop from her first appearance. Likewise, Rebecca Sheldon does a lovely job of making the Scots niece-companion sympathetic.

There is a lot of passion and angst in the central romantic triangle of Alex Newton's wealthy heiress, Paul Spargo's penniless husband and Shelly Cameron's jilted former lover of the husband.

Lindsay Carr puts an ambiguity into his role as Canon Pennefather and Timothy Blundell as a seeming anarchist and Tim O'Donnell as a German doctor enliven their stereotypes. Jacquelyn Brown, Elroy Aguiar and Luke Quinn show what can be done with small roles.

Ken Longworth

© 2006 Newcastle Herald

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