Agatha Christie's Death On The Nile Festival Theatre Edinburgh 24th March 2026 Review
Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (Tuesday 24 to Saturday 28 March) and, as usual, the crowds were out tonight for their murder, mystery adventure.
This production is based on the 1937 book of the same name and Egypt was a place and subject which Agatha Christie was very familiar with. The author had spent her debutante "coming out" season there, and her second husband Max Mallowan was an archaeologist. The couple also befriended Howard Carter (of Tutankhamun fame). The story also features one of Christie's most famous creations, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, although Poirot, played by Mark Hadfield, is a little more jocular at times than others that have gone before him.
As with any production made in association with Agatha Christie Limited (and others), standards are high throughout this work, and with the depth and experience of creative talent working on and behind the stage here, you would expect no less.
There is a high degree of probability that many people in the audience tonight already knew this story well from either reading the book or watching one of the many film or television adaptations of it and already knew who did the foul deed. Still, there is something about the way that Agatha Christie wrote her stories that still makes people want to sit down and watch a very formula driven detective story, full of red-herrings and little character reveals that all culminate in the collection of people gathered in a room for the culprit and their motives to be revealed to everyone present.
The above is exactly what we get here as Linnet Ridgeway (Libby Alexandra-Cooper), Rosalie Otterbourne (Camilla Anvar), Salome Otterbourne (Glynis Barber), Colonel Race (Bob Barrett), Jacqueline de Bellefort (Esme Hough), Simon Doyle (Nye Occomore) and the rest of the characters/cast all for one reason or another attract the attention of Hercule Poirot. As with any Agatha Christie production like this one, this was an ensemble work full of good, solid performances from everyone rather that any single outstanding one, and this is what is required for a story like this to work on stage.
With adaptation for stage by Ken Ludwig and Lucy Bailey as director, this production was always in good, safe hands and the attention to period detail was, as you would expect with designer Mike Britton, giving that air of a world that has long gone (except for maybe still the very wealthy). Some careful use of sound design (Mic Pool) and lighting design (Oliver Fenwick) added the final touches to the overall atmosphere of "Death on the Nile”. Using a split level stage worked well here as it allowed for the resetting of scenes fluidly. It was though a bit annoying from the circle of the theatre to have the opening scene viewed as the bottom half of a screen curtain.
Surprisingly though, this set used a lot of dark and sombre colours and textures. There was nothing here visually that said to me that we were on a boat going down the River Nile as everything took place on interior shots that could so easily have also been on a luxury train. This company had an earlier sell-out tour with "Murder on The Orient Express”. There was little in fact to ever indicate that this story was actually set on a moving boat at all.
If there is one downside to Agatha Christie stories from this period in time it is that they reflect a world and in some cases social attitudes that are now simply part of history. On the plus side however, a production like this, when well done as this one was, is always a safe space to go to for theatre for the whole family.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This production is based on the 1937 book of the same name and Egypt was a place and subject which Agatha Christie was very familiar with. The author had spent her debutante "coming out" season there, and her second husband Max Mallowan was an archaeologist. The couple also befriended Howard Carter (of Tutankhamun fame). The story also features one of Christie's most famous creations, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, although Poirot, played by Mark Hadfield, is a little more jocular at times than others that have gone before him.
As with any production made in association with Agatha Christie Limited (and others), standards are high throughout this work, and with the depth and experience of creative talent working on and behind the stage here, you would expect no less.
There is a high degree of probability that many people in the audience tonight already knew this story well from either reading the book or watching one of the many film or television adaptations of it and already knew who did the foul deed. Still, there is something about the way that Agatha Christie wrote her stories that still makes people want to sit down and watch a very formula driven detective story, full of red-herrings and little character reveals that all culminate in the collection of people gathered in a room for the culprit and their motives to be revealed to everyone present.
The above is exactly what we get here as Linnet Ridgeway (Libby Alexandra-Cooper), Rosalie Otterbourne (Camilla Anvar), Salome Otterbourne (Glynis Barber), Colonel Race (Bob Barrett), Jacqueline de Bellefort (Esme Hough), Simon Doyle (Nye Occomore) and the rest of the characters/cast all for one reason or another attract the attention of Hercule Poirot. As with any Agatha Christie production like this one, this was an ensemble work full of good, solid performances from everyone rather that any single outstanding one, and this is what is required for a story like this to work on stage.
With adaptation for stage by Ken Ludwig and Lucy Bailey as director, this production was always in good, safe hands and the attention to period detail was, as you would expect with designer Mike Britton, giving that air of a world that has long gone (except for maybe still the very wealthy). Some careful use of sound design (Mic Pool) and lighting design (Oliver Fenwick) added the final touches to the overall atmosphere of "Death on the Nile”. Using a split level stage worked well here as it allowed for the resetting of scenes fluidly. It was though a bit annoying from the circle of the theatre to have the opening scene viewed as the bottom half of a screen curtain.
Surprisingly though, this set used a lot of dark and sombre colours and textures. There was nothing here visually that said to me that we were on a boat going down the River Nile as everything took place on interior shots that could so easily have also been on a luxury train. This company had an earlier sell-out tour with "Murder on The Orient Express”. There was little in fact to ever indicate that this story was actually set on a moving boat at all.
If there is one downside to Agatha Christie stories from this period in time it is that they reflect a world and in some cases social attitudes that are now simply part of history. On the plus side however, a production like this, when well done as this one was, is always a safe space to go to for theatre for the whole family.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com