Get ready to board the Orient Express! Ahead of Murder on the Orient Express’ arrival at Norwich Theatre Royal, we chatted with stars Michael Maloney and Bob Barrett about their favorite Belgian detective. They discussed bringing the characters to life on stage, why Agatha Christie is such a brilliant storyteller, and why Norwich audiences are in for a treat.
What can audiences expect when they come to see Murder on the Orient Express on stage?
Bob: It’s funny, it’s exciting and it’s adventurous, and it’ll also make you think. When I did And Then There Were None people left going ‘It’s a lot to think about’ or ‘I need to talk about what happened and all of the characters’.
Michael: But hopefully if we get the speed right and the pace right, people won’t be able to think fast enough during the show itself. It will be a night of intrigue with a great denouement.
How would you describe your characters’ relationship?
Bob: Monsieur Bouc is the man who runs the train, he’s very passionate about it and his best friend is Hercule Poirot, so he’s very supportive towards him. Poirot is a genius and Bouc isn’t, so he’s often a sounding board and there’s a little bit of Sherlock-Watson in it. Sometimes Bouc pushes back and he questions thing, then at other times he just watches as Poirot weaves his magic and goes ‘How extraordinary!’ There is a great bond between the two of them.
Michael: There are some very interesting scenes going on around Poirot in which he just observes and I think he’s quite a lonely person. In order to be on top of his game, in order to take care of his little grey cells, he has to distance or isolate himself from being too involved with people – so that he can objectively see what their characteristics are, what their behaviorisms are and what they’re up to full-stop, really. But yes, he and Monsieur Bouc are old friends and in fact we’ve made up a bit of a backstory for them, where they fought together in the First World War and Bouc saved Poirot’s life after he was invalided out to England and ended up in Torquay – as the type of Belgian refugee that Agatha Christie would have seen during her childhood there.
Michael, Poirot has been portrayed by many actors over the years. How are you making the character your own?
Michael: When you play a role it will naturally become your own but I carry the memory of everybody that I’ve watched play him with me. I don’t try to compete with them and I like to acknowledge what they’ve done. I’ve really enjoyed all their performances but I think David Suchet in particular has dominated the national consciousness because he did it for about 20 years on television, so when people say ‘Poirot’ they automatically think of his appearance, his persona and his acting of the role. To veer far away from that would not be right but because it is a stage production there is more expression involved and there is slightly more passion involved. We cannot be dependent on the television close-up, we have to project ourselves, and there is also room for losing your temper and getting exasperated, as well as being utterly charming.
You have a great rapport. Have you worked together before?
Bob: It’s our third time. Previously we were in Hamlet together. The first time, he was Hamlet and I was Rosencrantz, then I was Horatio to his Hamlet. Both times it was blissful and the second time was a longer tour so we shared digs. What’s lovely about it as well is that there is a sort of element of Hamlet-Horatio in the Poirot and Bouc relationship, and there are a lot of references to Hamlet in this play.
Michael: Ken Ludwig, who’s adapted it, is a fantastic writer and he’s also a passionate Shakespeare fan, so he’s puts in quotes from Hamlet throughout the play. Then with Bob, it’s very difficult not to enjoy working with him. He’s a big-hearted man and actually I think he’s the heart of the engine of the company as a result. It’s a pleasure to be working with him again.
What do you think makes Christie such a revered storyteller?
Bob: She’s the best at what she does. If you are in the mood for a murder mystery, she takes it to another level. It’s not just that she’s great at the narrative, telling the story and finding the gold within it, she’s also very good at painting characters. She maybe isn’t a Dickens but she’s not far off in terms of the characters she creates. Also she’s very good in terms of the psychology of people in extremis, so when people are pushed to the edge she’s so accurate about human nature. I think that’s why people keeping come back to her stories, because there is an authenticity to what she does.
What do you think makes Murder on the Orient Express a particularly compelling story?
Michael: This is one of her all-time greats. Her writing is very dependable. You have a world created for you, which you can observe from the audience and still feel non-threatened by but yet you’re intrigued by the terrible goings on in other people’s lives, which is the function of theatre a lot of the time anyway. The engine of the play, the plot by Agatha Christie, is a very good one.
Are there still surprises for people who know whodunnit from the novel and previous adaptations?
Michael: There are, yes. The way it’s staged, there are plenty of diversions and there are enough red herrings.
Bob: Our director Lucy Bailey has done a lot of Agatha Christies and she’s got a real handle on it. She pushes the stories into unexpected areas and it’s thrilling. She brings in elements that maybe aren’t there on the page, and I think that’s exciting for an audience.
The play is set in the 1930s, so is it pure escapism or does it have themes that speak to contemporary audiences?
Michael: There is a small speech, without giving away too much, which relates the time of the 1930s to us now. The play is set in pre-Nazi Germany and it’s on the doorstep of the characters’ consciousness, even on the train. There’s a certain sense of similar foreboding now for many, many people with the various flashpoints going on in the world and within our own country, so it has resonance.
Bob: With And Then There Were None it was very much British. This is more European, which is very interesting because – and I’m not going to get too political – hopefully we’ve kind of for the moment sorted ourselves out in this country. But things are very febrile at the moment in Europe.
In the 30s it was Hitler’s Germany and the Third Reich and that shook everything up, and the play touches on that sense of foreboding a bit. There is a sense that something’s going to happen, particularly through Poirot’s psyche, and when you come and see the play you can also see parallels between what’s happening now and what happened then.
What have been you career highlights on film and TV?
Michael: I enjoyed my little bit in Belfast with Kenneth Branagh just a couple of years ago and I enjoyed doing Henry V for Kenneth Branagh as well, playing the Dauphin. I also enjoyed doing a TV series for Anthony Minghella called What If It’s Raining on Channel 4, which was the precursor to the film Truly, Madly, Deeply, which was another enjoyable job. I’m very proud of Starlings, which was part of the Screen Two anthology series on BBC2. It was about a young lad whose biscuit factory closed down, so he becomes a butler. [Laughs] As you do.
Bob: I was in Holby City for 12 years, so that was a huge part of my life and I just loved doing it. I did an Ab Fab, which was exciting, and I really enjoyed doing Shakespeare in Love and learned a lot from that experience. They’re the big stand-outs for me.
And what have been your favourite stage jobs over the years?
Bob: I was in the all-male Shakespeare company Propeller off and on for five years, and when I wasn’t doing that I was in a six-and-a-half-hour version of Nicholas Nickleby. With Propeller I got to play parts I’d dreamt of doing at The Old Vic and I loved being part of an ensemble.
Michael: Doing Hamlet a couple of times was great and playing Prince Hal in Henry IV parts 1 and 2 at Stratford was good fun. I worked a couple of times at the Royal Court and I’m always proud of that. Their slogan was ‘The right to fail’ which immediately took away that thing of ‘We’ve got to be successful and everything’s got to be perfect’.
The tour calls at Norwich Theatre Royal. Does it have any significance for you?
Bob: Myself, my daughters and my wife all love Norwich, so it’s a bit of a special stop on the tour for me. I think as someone once said it’s the nicest place in the country, the people are the nicest people, and you know what? They are! They are amazingly friendly.
Michael: [Laughs] I beg to differ because I’m from Suffolk. But seriously, on the whole I’m a big fan of East Anglia. As Bob says, the people are so friendly.
Chug along to Norwich Theatre Royal between 17 – 21 Sep for Murder on the Orient Express. For more information or to book, visit norwichtheatre.org or call the Box Office on 01603 630 000.
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