Murder, mystery, intrigue and a little golf at Laguna Playhouse – Orange County Register

Brian Mackey, Matthew Salazar-Thompson, Jennifer Erdmann, Kim Morgan Dean, Jessica Mosher and Omri Schein star in “Murder on the Links,” on stage at Laguna Playhouse through June 18. (Photo by Aaron Rumley)

Note: Just for something different, we decided to run two reviews of Laguna Playhouse’s production of Agatha Christie’s  “Murder on the Links.” One is written by a seasoned arts and theater critic, the other by a superfan of Christie, both her books and the TV series “Agatha Christie’s Poirot.”

By Daniella Walsh

Laguna Woods Globe

“Dear Sir. I am in need of a detective and for reasons which I will give you later, I do not wish to call in the official police…”

So begins the intriguing and convoluted tale of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Links.” The “letter” is written by a man named P.T. Renauld, summoning iconic detective Hercule Poirot to the Villa Geneviève in Merlinville-sur Mer in France in anticipation of a murder — his own.

Renauld is in fear of his life, and rightfully so. By the time Poirot gets there, the hapless bloke is found in a nearby golf course, stabbed to death with a letter opener. Poirot gets busy solving the murder in a thickening plot in Christie’s elegantly written 1923 book.

One hundred years later, playwright Steven Dietz turned the  multi-tiered novel into a clever, fast-paced play of the same title. It premiered this year at the North Coast Repertory Theatre and is currently playing at the Laguna Playhouse.

Straight off, it helps to be at least familiar with Christie’s dive into the intricacies of murder, greed and hysteria, both pseudo and real, misguided love, fake love and true love in the end. Also included are bumbling attempts at mystery/problem-solving by exasperating French police types and amateurs residing or serving in Renauld’s stately mansion.

Dietz simplified the plot into a two-hour play by casting only six actors to portray more than 20 characters with the help of ingenious costume changes —characters quite literally change identities at the drop of a hat. He even introduces a set of bowling pins embellished to represent different characters and to accelerate Poirot’s clever deductions. (Note that Poirot and his sidekick Capt. Arthur Hastings remain constant, played by Omri Schein and Kim Morgan Dean, respectively.)

Designed by Marty Burnett, the elegantly minimalist stage set accommodates the imaginations of both author and audience, since it too can be changed quickly and subtly. A knife appears out of a cubicle, a library materializes, a woman gets hysterical in her bedroom, a porter passes through a train station. Poirot and Hastings even get to play golf.

Throughout, Dietz keeps the dialogue lively, adding touches of irony and subtle humor.

He also casts a female actor, Morgan Dean, as Capt. Hastings. She fills Hastings’ shoes and humble tweed suit elegantly, providing a shyer, somewhat unfocused but well-meaning foil to the bombast of Poirot.

Poirot, a Belgian, has to suffer the attempts at help from his French rival, and the exchanges involving Poirot’s exasperation are comic. The accents are heavy, a bit stereotypical, but part of the fun.

Schein embodies the compact guided missile of a detective as if he had been born as such. Short of stature, he seems to grow in dimension at times or shrink in thoughtful contemplation, becoming exuberant at new discovery, a bit pompous at reapplying old insights to new calculations. He fully owns his space without overshadowing his fellow actors, who are adept at creating their own drama.

As the story moves onward, there are points of confusion as to who exactly did what and why, but those become clear in the end.

Did Paul Renauld have a mistress or more? Did said mistress murder him? Did his wife or his son Jack – disgruntled at being ostensibly disinherited – do the dastardly deed? Who had Renauld been in love with and who had captured him before his death?

Then there’s Hastings, who found an unlikely love interest on the train: an acrobat with a twin. One of those twins won Hasting’s heart, and the play thus ends on a sentimental note—in Argentina of all places.

In its somewhat convoluted entirety, “Murder on the Links” is a delightful example of spot-on ensemble acting and some good old-fashioned entertainment.

A wild and crazy ride

By Anita Gosch

Laguna Woods Globe

Fans of Agatha Christie –  brace yourself for a wild romp through mystery and murder in “Murder on the Links,” on stage at Laguna Playhouse.

The production more closely follows Christie’s book rather than the TV version from the series “Agatha Christie’s Poirot.”

It’s the story of the brutal stabbing of the wealthy owner of an estate in northern France whose body is found in a shallow grave on the adjacent golf course. There’s a host of characters, any of whom could be the killer: the man’s wife, his son, a woman in a neighboring villa (who may or may not be the man’s mistress) and her beautiful daughter, and an unknown woman (who also may be his mistress).

Only the eminent Belgian detective M. Hercule Poirot, with his trusty sidekick Capt. Arthur Hastings, can solve whodunit.

Playwright Steven Dietz takes his liberties, though, turning out a farcical version that takes the audience on a hilarious ride through the twists and turns of a typical Christie detective story. (If you by chance haven’t read the book, it would be a good idea to read it, or at least a good summary, before watching the play, as it can be a bit confusing.)

Christie fans should also brace themselves for the fact that Capt. Hastings is played by a woman. But that doesn’t distract from Kim Morgan Dean’s portrayal of Arthur Hastings, best friend, sometime roommate and frequent target of gentle mocking by Poirot.

Morgan Dean’s Hastings is every bit the traditional, impeccably dressed English gentleman. As in the novels, he’s a by-the-book kind of guy, a bit clueless, and he has a soft spot for pretty women – even if they may be the suspect. He also narrates the story, at times speaking directly to the audience.

Poirot now, he’s played by Omri Schein – and what a portrayal magnifique! Schein recreates the little Belgian detective as played by David Suchet in “Agatha Christie’s Poirot,” which has been airing on PBS since around mid-pandemic. (One wonders how many of the 70 Poirot episodes Schein watched to be able to bring that little man to life so perfectly on stage.)

Schein’s version of Poirot, though, is quite a bit more over the top. His performance is fascinating to watch as he walks across the stage in Poirot’s (or Suchet’s) small, quick steps, shoulders rounded, head jutting forward, hands behind his back. In true fastidious Poirot form, he picks a piece of invisible lint off Hastings’ overcoat, and he expounds upon using “the little gray cells,” order and method, and “logic, sequence and motive” to solve the crime.

And, mon Dieu, those “moustaches,” those famous Poirot “moustaches” – Schein’s got ‘em in full. But unlike Poirot, who is known for his bald-on-top, egg-shaped head, Schein has a healthy head of hair.

There are only four other actors in the production, and they play a combined 24 characters – sometimes, hilariously, two or more at the same time.

They are brilliant in their portrayal of the different characters, using different voices, different accents (juggling British, French and German), different personalities, gestures and facial expressions for each. The transformations are often accomplished by the simple addition of a shawl or a hat or another clever trick.

Brian Mackey, for example, plays both French detective (and Poirot rival) M. Giraud and the victim’s son, Jack Renauld. In one instance, when both characters are on stage, the young Renauld is represented by his white sweater hanging over the back of an empty chair.

The highlight of the play comes when all six actors gather around a table and act out possible scenarios using bowling pins dressed in tiny clothes to portray the individual characters, with actors playing multiple roles.

It takes a lot of imagining to appreciate the production, given the spare stage set: Characters ride in imaginary trains and cars, and a corpse is depicted by a man’s coat lying across a bench.

But it’s certainly worth it. All you have to do is kick back and go along for the raucous ride.

“Murder on the Links” is at the Laguna Playhouse through June 18. For information and tickets, go to lagunaplayhouse.com, email [email protected] or call 949-497-2787 ext. 1.