Many exciting strands of programming at The Old Globe come together in tonight’s production of Murder on the Orient Express.

First, with this play we continue to explore the rich tradition of adapting fiction for the stage. Great literature  comes in many forms, and while there’s an inexhaustible  supply of superb dramas that will always be the mainstay  of a writers’ theatre like ours, we know we can deliver  thrilling theatrical experiences by turning to nontheatrical sources. Agatha Christie’s writing has proven to be  a goldmine for playwrights (and of course screenwriters  too), who continue to adapt her novels with enormous  success. Her gifts for plotting are legendary, and her stories are laced with suspense and drama. And she has a  penchant for outsized characters who feel very much at  home on the stage. There’s something about the rhythm of her writing that feels like the stuff of theatre: she constructs her novels with a keen sense of how to shape a scene that chimes beautifully with how a dramatist deploys tempo, pace, and tone. And of course, she was a playwright too (The Mousetrap, anyone?), so it’s no surprise that her fiction carries in it traces of the theatre.

This is not to say that all of Christie’s fiction is automatically stage worthy. Rather, it requires a writer of skill and talent to move her across to our medium. That writer, Ken Ludwig, is the second strand of Globe programming that we touch upon with this show. Ken, who is without question the great comic playwright of his generation, has found an artistic home at our theatre, and we are delighted to welcome him back. His work on this most famous of Christie’s novels is nothing short of a marvel. Employing a keen dramaturgy of condensation and a healthy balance of reverence for the original on one hand, and on the other a willingness to elbow his own sensibility into the mix, Ken reinvents this story as much as he adapts it. I salute his achievement, even as I  boggle at the amazing fact that this adaptation has, just  a few years into its existence, had hundreds of productions in cities all over the world. Happy you’re here, dear Ken!

Next, the Globe cherishes this production for the opportunity it’s given us to showcase our celebrated production capacities. The designer Paul Tate dePoo III, himself a friend of the Globe who’s returning to our fold, has made a design that is truly jaw-dropping. Depicting locomotion live onstage is notoriously difficult, and representing multiple locations with detailed, naturalistic settings is also challenging. dePoo gives us an Orient Express with multiple cars of different sizes, always on the move, even when the train itself is still. We’re amazed at what he’s put on our stage, and proud of our many gifted craftspeople and technicians who have executed this truly complex creation with aplomb.

Great directors are the coin of the realm at the Globe, and in this regard too, tonight’s show continues a traditions here. Peter Amster is exceptional. An eminence of the American stage, Peter is working at the height of his powers, and we are honored to have him in our home. Along with Paul dePoo, Peter has brought to San Diego a top-notch team of theatre makers and a cast that’s very much at the level of excellence Globe audiences have come to expect. We’re grateful to Peter and look forward to his return in future seasons.

Finally, tonight we extend the Globe’s interest in the mystery genre. Sherlock Holmes is a frequent guest here—he (or, in this case, she) visited the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre earlier this summer. Like Holmes, Hercule Poirot is one of the towering detectives in English literature. Agatha Christie wrote 33 novels featuring his genius, of which this is the crown jewel. Poirot is  a remarkable character, and not just because of his distinctive moustache. Egotistical and eccentric, he’s a reluctant hero who’d prefer to live a quiet life, and he’s an outsider, a foreigner in England who never quite fits in. Fortunately for us, his exceptional analytical mind can’t stop working, and it draws him toward new and more complex mysteries. He solves cases with a flourish that can best be described with the very adjective that makes him a perfect fit for The Old Globe: theatrical. More than all the reasons above, that’s why I’m so happy to have this show here. Watching the mind of a great detective at work is joyful and electrifying, and it encapsulates what’s fun and thrilling about the live stage. Few things are more satisfying than the “aha moment” when Poirot figures it out. That’s why the Globe is here: to deliver jolts like those. We do so tonight with pleasure.

Thanks for coming. Enjoy the show.

Barry Edelstein is the Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director of The Old Globe.

Any feedback on tonight’s show or any of the Globe’s work? 

Email Barry at HiBarry@TheOldGlobe.org and he’ll get back to you!