"Murder On The Nile" by Agatha Christie.

Blind Eye Productions.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

I remember watching this film many years ago, but I couldn't for the life of me remember whodunnit, even though I knew the basic plot. For those who haven't seen the film, any of the films of this play, here's a taster........

Kay Ridgeway has led a charmed life. Blessed with beauty, enormous wealth, and a new husband, she embarks on a honeymoon voyage down the Nile on a luxury steamer named The Lotus. Fatal circumstances await when the idyllic surroundings are shattered by a shocking and brutal murder. Under scrutiny is a multitude of memorable passengers, all with a reason to kill. The tension and claustrophobia builds, as a shocking and audacious conspiracy is laid bare.

It all sounds very dramatic, doesn't it? Well, I'll let you into a little secret.... it is!

The play is based on her 1937 novel "Death On The Nile" which in itself started off as a play which Christie called "Moon On The Nile". Once written, she decided it would do better as a book and she only resurrected the play version in 1942 when she was in the middle of writing the theatrical version of "And Then There Were None" and her actor friend Francis L. Sullivan was looking for a play in which Hercule Poirot might feature. Discussions took place until October as Christie was tired of the character of Poirot and wanted to exclude him from the drama altogether. She managed to persuade Sullivan of this plan when she promised to write into the play the part of a church canon for him to play.

Ok, so this clarifies the "Murder" and "Death" bits in the title - it's also gone under the name of "Hidden Horizon back in the 1940's - and also explains why the Detective in this play is not Hercule Poirot.

Christie was brilliant about injecting a level of campness into her stories, and that campness was also in this play, maintaining some lovely comedy moments among the tension filled action.

The Steward, who is the head waiter and barperson, is played by Saurav Modak. This is a busy character, who can also be seen moving across the back of the set at intervals. He's also in charge of dispatching the bead and postcard seller, who follows everyone onto the steamer, trying her very best to sell her wares. I looked through the programme several times but could not see a mention of who played the pesky seller. Who was that mystery woman? Saurav also contributed to the comedy whenever he was shooing the seller off of the steamer.

Helen ffoliot-ffolkes, a wealthy snob, is played by Lisa Wilde, and straight away became one of the most annoying, but wonderful character. Incredibly titled, affected, spoilt and racist character and I loved her because Christie is so good at writing characters who really get under your skin that you want to slap. Lisa played the role to perfection, and I bet that she loves playing this particular role for all the reasons above.

Christina Grant is played by Danielle Rodgers - Miss Ffoliot-foulkes' niece who admires the glamorous Kay. Never allowed to be her own woman for a second, her Aunt treats her like her personal skivvy to fetch and carry. Christina catches the eye of one of the other characters and it's lovely to see the problems that this throws into the equation with her Aunt. A wonderfully faithful, under the thumb performance from Danielle.

William Smith, a wise-cracking "kid" is played by JJ McCormack. From first sight you just knew that this was going to be the "fun" character, and JJ does not disappoint with some lovely tongue in cheek lines and out and out comments to his ship mates (is a steamer classed as a ship?). And you can't fail to spot that twinkle in his eye as he brings this cheeky chappie to the stage.

Louise, Kay's maid, is played by Jackie Cooper. Regular readers of my reviews will already know that I love an accent; I even love an accent when it is overdone for comic purposes, and Jackie delivers the latter in French. Jackie even made me start to believe that Louise could have been involved in the murder, which shows that she is a pretty cunning actor. Jackie even adopted one of those "rabbit in the headlights" look whenever questioned over the murder, which really got me confused as to who did the deed and if, behind zat accent, maybe the maid, as opposed to the Butler, did it!

Dr Bessner, a doctor from a country which Kay's father ruined, is played by James Rodgers. You see, when Christie writes a murder mystery, she makes practically every character a suspect, and it wouldn't be the first time that a doctor could be a murderer, now is it? Another accent for me as well, this time German. Could Bessner be a registered and believable doctor, especially after he applied a bandage to a trouser-clad leg instead of direct to the wound?

Kay Ridgeway-Mostyn, the, supposedly, richest girl in England and a beautiful socialite with a fairytale life, is played by Kay Thomason-Vardy. We find out that she "stole" Simon away from his then love of his life with Jacqueline. She has more money than she knows what to do with, therefore the Canon takes another opportunity to relieve all that monetary pressure by getting her to write out several large cheques to him. What on earth did Simon see in this Miss Moneybags I wonder? Greed and the love of money is always an excuse for murder, but on their honeymoon? There's a lovely bit at the final bows when Kay looks backwards towards the audience with one of those knowing smirks. Loved it!

Simon Mostyn, her "rags to riches" husband, is played by Ben Bradley. There are some parts where Simon is over the top, and that is not a criticism because Christie used to love writing in a bit of over the topness, and this is the perfect character to do that with in this play. I have seen Ben in quite a few plays over the years and this is another of those characters that he plays so well, slightly upper class character which lends the character so well to being over the top. Ben does controlled over the top extremely well.

Canon Ambrose Pennefather, her uncle, is played by Paul Duffy. The Canon is Kay's guardian and her next of kin, before she married Simon. To start with you see Pennefather as cool and calm, but you discover that he is an observer and has the level of several of the characters, and is it really a coincidence that he has booked on to the same steamer as the honeymooners and has got the level of Kay's husband after being in the same restaurant and overhearing the conversation that he was having with a mystery woman. But is he being slightly too overprotective?

Jacqueline de Severac, Kay's ex-best friend and Simon's ex-fiancée, is played by Alexandra Sjoberg-Weekes. Oh what a woman scorned will do to not lose her man. She is not a happy bunny when she discovers that Simon is marrying Kay and decides, even though she is as poor as a church mouse, to follow the pair everywhere they go. After Simon confronts her with this, all hell breaks loose with that old scenario of "if I can't have you, no one will" and out comes the gun and she shoots Simon in the leg. It's only the grief talking though and she is escorted to her cabin by the doctor to be sedated and in shock. Poor Jacqueline! Well that's her out of the picture then!

McNaught, the Lotus's captain, is played by Bertie Black making a cameo performance. 

So who killed Kay? There are several suspects but who had the opportunity because at the time that she was killed off, most of the characters were actually on stage, and those that weren't surely couldn't have had any reason for murder, could they?

Co-Directed by JJ McCormack and Ann Colgan. They have so obviously understood what makes an Agatha Christie play a success. They have combined high drama with red herrings, campness and humour along with cheekiness and mixed all of these ingredients together to create this wonderful production. The pace is excellent and then there's those little touches that I love to spot. There was a mention that Kay had been shot in the right temple, so they made sure that when Kay came on at the end for her bows, she had blood from a wound in her right temple. It would have been so easy to dismiss this item for a few minutes at the end of the play, but it's that realism that I enjoy spotting.

The accents were great and the controlled going over the top acting was just right, as was the pitched delivery of Christie's script, especially for Helen ffoliot-ffolkes.

It was so obvious that for all the actors and Ann that this production is a labour of love because of the fun and energy that emits from the stage.

Set design is yet another massive plus because as soon as you walk into the theatre you are confronted by this wonderful set containing a gorgeous bar area, so in keeping with the glamour of the 1940s, plants, chaise-longue, screens, chairs and tables and you immediately are taken back in time, just like when Mr Ben walked through the changing room entrance (look it up on Google or Youtube). The set is constructed and created by Grant Hemingway, Ben Bradley and Mark Wilde

Costumes are something else that Blind Eye are so good at; they've won awards, and have been created by JJ McCormack and Kat Thomason-Vardy and look wonderful, especially those classy threads for the ladies and the dinner suits for the males. Saurav's and Bertie's costumes are also typical of what their characters would have worn back in the day, so you can see the research that has gone into getting the costumes for this time period spot on.

Sound and lighting is by Alan Betton and Nick Elliott. None of the actors are mic'd up so they had to project, and they all did. the sound effects and music that was heard were all well executed and again, research into the music of the period was adhered to perfectly. Lighting wise, the red flood accentuated the murderous scene and feel.

Good stage management from Kirsty Smith, assisted by Gabriella Tilley.

Plenty of props as well, and I love a good selection of props where relevant, managed by Lindsey Hemingway.

I've loved everything that I have seen by Blind Eye, and I think I have seen every production that they have put on, but this is just so stylish and so in with keeping with what Agatha would have wanted to see in her plays, I think this is a case of nudging the Blind Eye bar up yet another notch.

"Murder On The Nile" will be docking at The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 19 April. You will not be disappointed with the talent on and off stage.