Drama club’s production absolute murder

Oconto Falls High School’s drama club will be looking into a murder written by one of literature’s greatest mystery writers for its spring play at the end of this month.

The students will be taking the train to entertain audiences as they present “Murder on the Orient Express” by Agatha Christie. The book was established for the silver screen in 1974, with a new adaptation coming out five years ago. OFHS is performing the Broadway show version of the story adapted by Ken Ludwig, which started in 2017.

The story features Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, one of Christie’s most beloved fictional characters, who must take a train from the Middle East to London for another case. Heavy snowfall stops the train dead in its tracks, and the passengers must wait for it to be cleared to travel home, and during that time, American businessman Samuel Ratchett is murdered. Among the suspects are a British colonel, a Hungarian countess, an English governess, an American widow and a Russian princess, among others.

“Murder on the Orient Express” is considered by many to be the best of all Christie’s novels, inspired by the author’s journey on that very train in 1928 and a snowstorm marooning the train less than a year later. Besides the films and Broadway show, the novel has been adapted for television and even a board game.

While many have read the Christie novel, OFHS director Gayle Gander admitted it was not foremost on his reading list, although he noted that he’s used other Christie tales like “And Then There Were None” in his English classes. He noted that more research was done via the recent movie than with the book.

“This actually came from a request from the students, especially the seniors,” Gander said. “We’d been talking about what we should be looking when we were done (with our last show) and do for the spring. What haven’t we done — we asked that, too.”

The Oconto Falls community tends to gravitate toward the comedies that the high school does, according to Gander, but the students were interested in pursuing this drama, but the director noted the show has its hints of humor, too.

“I feel like I need to expose them to some other genres, as well,” Gander said. “The story is serious, but the person who adapted it, it’s got its little twist of humor in it, if it’s presented right.”

The students have been preparing well for the show, Gander said, and the challenges have been more with how the set is going to look.

“Once we get into working, a Broadway stage has a lot more capability,” Gander said. “I figure, we’ll do it this way, and then it’s not working, so part way in, we had to turn it all around because basically it takes place on a train, and you’re confined to certain space sizes. You’ve got 12 people in the cast, and most of the time, they’re all together.”

Gander credited the actors for being flexible, and he noted the cast has also adapted to speaking with a variety of different accents.

“We’ve got Hungarian, French, Scottish, English — it’s a little of everything,” Gander said. “We told them when they auditioned, ‘Are you willing to put the time in on the accents?’ They’ve done a nice job with that.”

The closing monologue from Poirot should be the most meaningful to audiences, in Gander’s view, because it’ll give people a feeling of peace.

“It’s kind of a roller coaster throughout, and once everything comes to a close, the detective says something like ‘It’s done,’” Gander said.

The show has a student director, Kleo Van Dornick, who also plays Poirot for “Murder on the Orient Express.” Being able to have more of a say in how the show is shaped was an exciting prospect for her.

“I was very nervous, definitely, at first, but I know all these people, and it’s really fun working with them all. The good outweighs the bad,” Van Dornick said. “It’s nice because you can have your vision and see things your way. It’s not under anyone else’s influence. It’s how you want it to go.”

Van Dornick said she’s had a hard time finding the novel version of “Murder on the Orient Express,” so she’s had to do other things to research her character and prepare for the show.

“I’ve been looking in the library and stuff,” she said. “We’ve all been watching the movie together. I looked up everything that I could about it — the characters and stuff — so that when people came in to audition, I would know a little bit of who each character was. I was definitely into it in the beginning.”

Van Dornick has also enjoyed researching the time period and finding out how people lived more than 90 years ago.

“I look up the ’30s hairstyle and the ’30s clothing, and it’s very interesting,” she said, noting that audiences should enjoy a feeling of nostalgia from watching the show. “I hope to leave people feeling more engrossed in the story than they have before than just reading it or watching the movie, because we’re up there and it’s more of an experience this way.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: “Murder on the Orient Express”

WHEN: 7 p.m. March 25-26, 1 p.m. March 27

WHERE: Falls Performing Arts Center, 210 N. Farm Road, Oconto Falls

TICKETS: $8 adults, $5 students. Extra $1 per ticket at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at https://ofps.revtrak.net/pac-ticket-boxoffice/#/list.