The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is considered one of Christie’s best novels. Adapting a first-person narration for the stage can be very difficult but Phillip Grecian (playwright) and co-directors, Ann Harvey and William Dowd, facilitate this with aplomb.

Central to the story is Dr James Sheppard. Sheppard has the discretion and common sense his sister lacks and is played with gravity (and a dash of ingenuous enthusiasm for the chase) by the charismatic James Casey. Sheppard’s observations of events are recorded on his Dictaphone, audio bites of which smooth many scene transitions and fill in the lacunas of the lapse of time and change of location. The sound design is critical. Augmenting Sheppard’s narration are recordings of footfalls and distant activity that hold the attention of the audience.

The play straddles three locations. Dowd eschews a clumsy box set. MTC has done something similar in their current production of Rebecca.  Movable pieces with no apparent back wall become part of the suspension of disbelief – location becomes fluid. Dowd anchors his set with a tall three-sided rotating structure (a periaktos, if you will). An army of servants/crew and voila! Smooth and rapid scene changes to which pace is never sacrificed. 

The play (or script) is very long and wordy and the exposition could be clumsy. Sheppard and his sister discuss a recent death (a women never seen) and bounce around the similar names of Roger (only seen as a corpse) and Ralph (who has little stage time). Dowd and Harvey create a nice theatrical moment by bringing on the actors so names can be attributed to faces. This helps. Sister, Caroline, is played charmingly by Meredith McQueen who adds to the humour of the script.

Ian McQueen gives an excellent Poirot. The moustache is aspiring but not bad but the wing tips and bow tie are on point. Some patrons were heard to say they struggled with the Belgian accent, but McQueen does a great job balancing the quirks of Poirot’s pronunciation with essential comprehension.  Rowan Dix is very funny as Inspector Raglan, the clueless local officer.