REVIEW: Moline’s Playcrafters Presents Gripping, Confounding Murder Mystery
There’s a good deal to admire in the current Playcrafters production of Agatha Christie’s exotic murder mystery, “Murder on the Nile.” Just don’t ask me to explain the sometimes confounding, labyrinthine plot.
In the Playcrafters Barn Theatre synopsis on its website (printed programs were not available the opening weekend), it says:
“Kay Ridgeway has led a charmed life. Blessed with beauty, enormous wealth, and a new husband, she embarks on a honeymoon voyage down the Nile. Fatal circumstances await when the idyllic surroundings are shattered by a shocking and brutal murder. Under scrutiny is a multitude of memorable passengers, all with a reason to kill. The tension and claustrophobia build, as a shocking and audacious conspiracy is laid bare.”
Seeing the compelling play, I can’t exactly agree that all the passengers are that memorable, nor do they ALL have a reason to kill (decorum prevents me from even disclosing the main victim, which occurs about halfway through the proceedings, with a shocking second killing late in the play).
Mark Garden (left), Kathryn Klatt and Justin Raver.
“Murder on the Nile” (sometimes titled “Hidden Horizon”) is a 1944 by the prolific, beloved crime writer Agatha Christie, based on her 1937 novel “Death on the Nile.” The book featured many more characters (including famed detective Hercule Poirot), and a different plot, still headed by the honeymooning couple Kay and Simon, and his ex-fiancee Jacqueline, who was best friends with Kay.
The first impressive aspect of the Playcrafters show is its very handsome set, depicting the main room of the ship cruising down the iconic Egyptian river. I’m usually knocked out at how each production in the thrust-stage space (with audiences on three sides of the stage) totally transforms, including a different floor for the stage, here a wooden veneer.
The rear walls for the “Nile” set are deep, warm orange, with white drapes, a library, area rugs, wicker furniture, and pillows in complementary colors, and two female characters later wear dresses that even match the set palette. Fitting for a luxury liner, it’s all very inviting, capably directed by Karen Riffey. The website does not list a set designer, but set builder was Mike Roberts.
Jonna Hicks-Bird (left), Ashley Hoskins and Terri Nelson in Playcrafters’ “Murder on the Nile.”
We’re also in very capable hands with the Playcrafters leading couple — Leslie Day as Kay Mostyn and Justin Raver as her new husband, Simon (the solid actors are both Richmond Hill veterans). Day, who’s had major roles in the Moline venue’s “Streetcar Named Desire” and “House of Blue Leaves,” is appropriately upbeat here, and loving life. We can clearly see why Raver’s character fell for her in the first place – a luminous, lovely presence compared twice to the sun, that blocked out the moon, symbolized by Jacqueline (an excellent Khalia Denise, another Barn Theatre veteran).
Raver’s Simon is often a common-sense, level-headed role, in command of scenes he’s in, but we don’t really get to see much of the spark of romance between the newlyweds, especially given this is their honeymoon.
It takes a while for the conflict of the story to present itself, since there’s an excessive amount of small talk among other characters in the first section of the play. They include Helen Ffoliot-Ffoulkes (Terri Nelson), a wealthy snob; her niece Christina Grant (Ashley Hoskins); William Smith (Mark Garden), a wise-cracking socialist; Louise (Julia Sears, Kay’s maid; Dr. Bessner (Kathryn Klatt), a psychologist and physician who seems obsessed with injections), and Canon Ambrose Pennefather (Greg Braid), an upstanding, moralistic priest who’s Kay’s uncle and guardian.
The crux of the play is the love triangle among Kay, Simon and the jealous Jackie, and Khalia Denise (who was notable in Playcrafters’ “Skeleton Crew” and “Paint Night” is always eminently watchable, and plays her apparently unstable, dramatic role to the emotional hilt, strong and forceful.
Justin Raver (left), Leslie Day, Khalia Denise and Greg Braid.
One of the mysteries here (beyond the whodunit aspect) is why Christie has Smith be mute at the play’s start and in the second act propose marriage out of the blue to Christina. The flustered Hoskins smartly turns him down.
The expected solving of the two crimes is also beyond my comprehension as Braid takes on the master detective role, unfurling a convoluted explanation at the story’s climax that made absolutely no sense to me, and therefore marred my own enjoyment of the play. This is no fault of the cast here, but is a kind of crime in itself.
“Murder on the Nile” will continue at Playcrafters (4950 35th Ave., Moline) at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 and 20, and 3 p.m. Sept. 21. Tickets are $18 general admission and $16 for seniors and military, available at 309-762-0330 or online HERE.
Leslie Day (standing) stars in Playcrafters’ new production of “Murder on the Nile.”
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