REVIEW: You don’t want to miss this train

By Meredith MacLeodMar 7, 2026

Murder on the Orient Express at Theatre Aquarius is escapist theatre at its very best: great ensemble cast, magnificent set and costumes, and a story by one of mystery’s masters. It's on until March 29.

Murder on the Orient Express is a tightly-wound, fast-paced thrill ride aboard a luxury train hurtling from Istanbul to Calais.

This is escapist theatre at its very best: great ensemble cast, magnificent set and costumes, and a satisfying story of justice by one of mystery’s masters.

You don’t want to miss this train.

Full disclosure: I have never read the classic Agatha Christie book, nor have I seen either of the two movie adaptations or the TV series. So this played out for me as the murder mystery that the great writer intended. And before we forge on, be reassured this review contains no spoilers. I wouldn't want to ruin the fun for anyone else.

I will say that audiences unfamiliar with the story have to pay strict attention. There are a lot of characters, speaking very quickly in a variety of accents. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I found myself craving subtitles here and there. Ah well, no matter. I loved it nonetheless.

It’s worthy of note that 14 passengers in the book are pared down to eight for the stage, who join conductor Michel (Steven Gallagher), train company director Monsieur Bouc (Brendan Wall), and famed detective Hercule Poirot (Daniel Kash) on the train.

Nonetheless, the play is so lean, at a run time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, that there is little chance to get a real sense of who each passenger is before the obnoxious American Samuel Ratchett (Martin Happer) is murdered in his compartment.

Now the train is stuck in the deep snow in the mountains of what was then called Yugoslavia and a murderer is among us.

Daniel Kash as Hercule Poirot with the murder weapon in *Murder on the Orient Express* at Theatre Aquarius. PHOTO: Dahlia Katz

The dialogue is witty and delivered beautifully by this fine cast of 10 (Gallagher and Happer each take on two roles).

Kash, a veteran actor of TV, film and stage, told HAMILTON CITY Magazine that playing the debonair Poirot is a bucket list role that he didn’t know he wanted until he landed it.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL KASH!

He makes the most of it, letting us bear witness to the great detective’s charm and intellect, but also feel Poirot’s weariness after his return from a brutal case in Syria. The detective was supposed to get a vacation but has been called back to London by Scotland Yard. Thus, he finds himself on the Orient Express, somewhat impatiently grilling the passengers and unraveling the crime.

Poirot tells us before the story unfurls that this is his toughest case. He has sensed tension among the passengers – among them a Hungarian countess, a Russian princess, and a Scottish officer in the British military – before he even boards the train.

Kash handles Poirot’s dry wit flawlessly, but many of the play’s funniest lines come from Monsieur Bouc, the train company director, who is horrified that an unseemly murder has happened on board his most elegant train, and Helen Hubbard (Nora McLellan), a wealthy, flirtatious and aggravating American who’s left husband No. 4 behind to travel, though she’s openly looking for her next.

“You remind me of one of my husbands,” she says to Monsieur Bouc. “Which one?” he inquires.

“The next one,” she deadpans.

McLellan is simply a scene stealer. Here’s hoping we see this multi-award winning actor back at Aquarius soon.

Brendan Wall as Monsieur Bouc and Nora McLellan as Helen Hubbard in *Murder on the Orient Express* at Theatre Aquarius.
PHOTO: Dahlia Katz

The train car set designed by Hamiltonian Brandon Kleiman is ingenious and magnificent. It clearly impressed the opening night crowd as it emerged into view. The well-appointed passenger car, with sleeping berths on one side and a dining car on the other side of a central corridor, rotates on the stage. The cast moves about the turning, see-through car, with well-choreographed blocking, but there is a sense of both the train’s forward motion and the claustrophobia of the tight quarters, just as if the audience is onboard the packed train, too.

Kleiman, who has won two Dora awards and has worked on shows right across the country, is also in charge of costumes for Murder on the Orient Express, and they are fantastic, too. Today’s passengers are dressed for comfort in hoodies and yoga pants, but in 1934 Europe, travelling was a high-class affair. The stage lighting only adds to the feeling of both luxury and mystery.

The whole production has a colour-rich, quite cinematic look.

Birgitte Solem as Greta Ohlsson, left, and Pamela Mala Sinha as Princess Dragomiroff in *Murder on the Orient Express* at Theatre Aquarius.
PHOTO: Dahlia Katz

Director Morris Panych, a veteran director at the Shaw Festival and Stratford, and a prolific playwright himself, does a wonderful job here.

Just like Poirot’s investigative mind, the journey the audience takes in this play is high-speed. There are plenty of laughs, a plot of revenge and deception, even a moment that made my theatre companion jump with fright.

Such is the talent of the remainder of the yet-unmentioned cast that I wished to have spent more time watching them on stage: Kristen Peace (Countess Andrenyi), Kiana Woo (Mary Debenham); Pamela Mala Sinha (Princess Dragomiroff), Mark Crawford (Hector McQueen) and Birgitte Solem (Greta Ohlsson).

Murder on the Orient Express is a classic tale and a piece of exciting theatre that is nostalgic, yet relevant, beset with violence yet somehow charming, cerebral yet escapist.

The cast of Murder on the Orient Express, from left: Brendan Wall, Kristen Peace, Pamela Mala Sinha, Birgitte Solem, Martin Happer, Daniel Kash, Kiana Woo, Mark Crawford, Nora McLellan and Steven Gallagher. PHOTO: Dahlia Katz

“Even the train itself is a construction of the mind, a metaphor of liminal space between the point of origins and the destination,” writes Panych in the show’s program. “Time stops and rather than rush forward, we are encouraged to examine what’s around us and what led to the crime; not an ‘express’ so much as an ‘expression’ of curiosity and inquisition.”

As is their tradition on opening night, Theatre Aquarius artistic director Mary Francis Moore and executive director Kelly Vaughan addressed guests as they settled into their seats. They pointed out that Aquarius is among just four A-house theatres out of 14 in Ontario with a female artistic director, and one of just two female leadership teams among all A-house theatres in Canada.

That seemed particularly important to note just two days before International Women’s Day to kick off a night of wonderful theatre based on the work of a woman, the second-best selling author of all time.