UW-Eau Claire theater department presents Murder on the Orient Express

EAU CLAIRE — Just in time for spooky season, the UW-Eau Claire theater department will bring audiences to the edge of their seats with a thrilling production of the iconic mystery “Murder on the Orient Express.”

Originally an Agatha Christie novel written in 1934, playwright Ken Ludwig’s live performance adaptation of “Murder on the Orient Express” debuted in 2017.

Jennifer Chapman, a UW- Eau Claire professor of theatre arts and director of the production, heralds Ludwig as one of her favorite playwrights. Chapman recommends the play both for those familiar with the plot and those new to the story, noting Ludwig does an excellent job preserving what mystery fans love about Christie’s classic story.

“The show is a really fun way to experience the story even if you know it already,” Chapman said. “If not, it’s a terrific surprise.”

“Murder on the Orient Express” follows famed detective Hercule Poirot as he attempts to return to London from Istanbul. The journey is stalled when the train Poirot is traveling on gets stuck in the snow and one of his fellow passengers is found murdered.

Poirot takes on the case, deducing that the murderer must still be on the train as the heavy snow would prevent escape. As the mystery unravels, Poirot realizes that not everyone is who they say and that the answer to this case may lay in a murder from many years earlier.

Poirot and his adventures are featured in many of Christie’s works including famous titles like “Death On The Nile” and “The ABC Murders.” The quintessential detective remains in the public consciousness over a century after his introduction and inspired countless movie and television series.

UW-Eau Claire theater department productionsThe UW-Eau Claire theater department is a subsection of the music and theater arts department. It has six full-time faculty members, all professionals in their field dedicated to a specific aspect of theater production such as lighting design, costume design and technical direction, according to Chapman.

The theater department produces four mainstage shows a year. “Murder on the Orient Express” is the department’s first show of the season.Throughout the season the department will put on the operetta “Cendrillon,” the play “A Doll’s House” and finally close out the season with a production of the musical “Guys and Dolls” in May.

These productions are directed and designed by the professional faculty, but all work is carried out by students of the department, Chapman said. This gives students experience working on professional-level productions while pursuing their education.

Students are required to gain experience in all aspects of production from set design to actually acting on stage at some point in their education, Chapman said. This is done because everything from the costumes to the set to the action fits together like puzzle pieces to make the production come to life, so it is important for students to understand how these pieces create the whole.

This year’s production has a good mix of more senior students and students who are new to the program, which is ideal when working on a student production, Chapman said. The more experienced students are able to lead by example and mentor the younger students, while the newer students bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the department.

The play will be performed in the JAMF theater at the Pablo Center at the Confluence, which is a black-box theater. Despite what the name suggests, this does not mean the theater is a room covered in floor-to-ceiling black paint. It simply means the theater can be configured in any way, so every production can choose where to put the stage and where to place the audience.

This gives productions much more freedom to customize the audience experience for the show. “Murder on the Orient Express” places the stage on the longer side wall of the theater to create a set that showcases more of the titular train.

Throughout the show, audiences watch the train change and morph to reveal the secrets of the characters inside before finally giving away the answer to the age old question: who’s done it?