After weeks of seeing one musical revival after another, it was actually a balm to catch a production of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Adapted for the stage and directed by Westport Country Playhouse Artistic Director Mark Shanahan, this is a strictly by-the-numbers but entertaining rendering. Everyone loves a good mystery and this crowd-pleaser closes the Westport Playhouse’s 95th season on a satisfying note.
Roger Ackroyd (Mark Silence), the richest man in the village of King’s Abbot, is mourning the apparent suicide of his lady friend. But when Ackroyd is then found (spoiler!) murdered, the suspect list grows to include his staff and friends. One of those is Dr. James Sheppard (an amiable John Rapson), who is also the narrator of this complex tale of greed, blackmail and murder most foul. Sheppard is the town’s only doctor, but seems to have enough time to join forces with his new neighbor, a retiree, who just happens to be the world famous detective Hercule Poirot (Anthony Cochrane).
As in any Christie classic, the rundown of suspects is a colorful rogue’s gallery, one more suspicious than the other. In Roger Ackroyd they include Sheppard’s nosey sister (a very funny Caroline Sheppard), the bloviating big game hunter Major Hector Blunt (Richard R. Henry), an uppity butler (Tom Hewitt), Ackroyd’s dowager sister-in-law (Karen Ziemba), her secretive daughter (Shereen Ahmed), and a bumbling inspector (Allen Gilmore). Both Hewitt and Ziemba, notable character actors who always seem to be working and elevate any material they appear in, add plenty here in choice supporting roles. Cochrane’s Poirot certainly has his moments, but seemed to still be finding his way at the performance I caught with line flubs and clarity of diction an issue.
The mystery, with a lengthy exposition in act one, is fun for what it is and boasts a very handsome scenic design by Charlie Corcoran, period costumes and wigs by Jeni Schaefer, moody lighting by Julie Duro, and effective sound and original music by the legendary John Gromada. The script does bog down in act two with plotting that is often complicated and difficult to grasp until Poirot explains all. The payoff still works (director Shanahan has some great business at the end with a doctor’s bag) and Christie proves once again why she is the queen of the mystery.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd continues at the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court in Westport, Connecticut through August 1. For further information visit: www.westportplayhouse.org or call the box office at: 203.227.4177.
Tom Holehan is one of the founders of the Connecticut Critics Circle, a frequent contributor to WPKN Radio’s “State of the Arts” program and the Stratford Crier and Artistic Director of Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company. He welcomes comments at: tholehan@yahoo.com. His reviews and other theatre information can be found on the Connecticut Critics Circle website.
