‘Death on the Nile’ Will Keep You Entertained and Guessing Until the End

Are you looking for a fun and thrilling theater experience? If so, then “Death on the Nile,” an Agatha Christie mystery currently at Arena Stage, is for you. 

Running until Dec. 29, this production is a world premiere adapted for the stage by two-time Tony Award nominee Ken Ludwig. Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif is at the helm in her Arena Stage directorial debut.

This is Sharif’s second time working with Ludwig. His adaption of Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” was the last production Sharif worked on at The Repertory Theater of St. Louis before coming to Arena Stage in 2023. 

“This creative group is amazing. The actors were amazing,” said Ludwig during a reception after the play. 

He continued with praise for Sharif: “She’s been wonderful from the get-go and is a great director.”

The basic plot is set in the 1930s and concerns a group of individuals whose lives have intersected at some point. These individuals all end up traveling on a ship down the Nile River. 

All manner of entanglements ensues on board the vessel, resulting in one member of the group being murdered. Fortunately, a detective is in the group named Hercule Poirot, a detective of sorts. Poirot is a mainstay in Christie’s mysteries. 

You’ll have to come to Arena Stage to see how the tale unfolds, but “Death on the Nile” will keep you engaged. 

There are 11 cast members in this play. It is difficult to say one is more outstanding than the other, as this is a tightly synced cast. They embody their characters perfectly with superb comic timing and the right amount of animated excitement and deliver the dialog effortlessly. 

For a small cast, there were nearly 100 costume changes. The clothes could have been considered another character. They were beautifully tailored for the 1930s era. 

The women’s day and evening wear were well crafted, some with jeweled upper arm detail. Men were refined with properly fitted suits for day business and formal dinner occasions. Everything was coordinated down to the shoes. 

Set Designer Alexander Dodge created magic on stage. Transforming a museum setting to a sizable ship parlor to a ship deck on a small stage was phenomenal. 

Britanny Bland, the projection designer, took an innovative approach to bringing movement to the stage. We saw a process that merged film segments of the ocean, maps that tracked the ship’s course, and images of people as background primarily used to transition between scenes.

“She did a beautiful job taking my dreams and vision for what it would be to go down the Nile,” said Sharif about Bland. “To marry it with the kind of violence, pain, and the tenors of foreshadowing we wanted to put into the play, she put all of that into the videos. I think it worked seamlessly with the set.”