After a sensational debut last year, KCC Theatre returns to Gippsland stages this month with their production of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit Murder on the Orient Express.

KCC Theatre’s debut production did not just exceed expectations but completely blew them away; the phenomenal, multifaceted, hilariously dark comedic rendition of Australian playwright Louis Nowra’s Così mesmerising from start to finish.

Murder on the Orient Express promises to be bigger and better, filled with mystery, mayhem and KCC Theatre’s signature dark comical twist transporting you to a bygone era of larger-than-life characters, twirling moustaches and three-piece suits.

KCC founders, directors, and actors Richard Kemp and Connor Hodges ambitioned to build on Cosi’s success and showcase a period piece, ultimately deciding on Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit Murder on the Orient Express.

“Cosi was like a drop in the ocean compared to the challenge of what Murder on the Orient Express is, and that’s what excited us about it,” Kemp said.

“Late last year, once we finished our Cosi tour, we got together, and you do that thing where you are kind of riding the high of your previous tour; what are we going to do? What can happen now?

“Connor and I smashed our heads together and decided on this idea of something that requires you to go all in – set, costume, every character has an accent, which is a total departure from what Cosi was.”

A mystery was a must.

“We knew we wanted to do a period piece, and we knew that we wanted to do some sort of mystery,” Hodges said.

“Something that has the audience thinking throughout the show. We were butting our heads against what sort of mystery, murder mystery, do we do. What sort of show do we do that encourages that dynamic with the audience?”

And so it was decided KCC Theatre would put its unique flare on Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.

KCC Theatre’s production of Murder on the Orient Express follows famous detective Hercule Poirot, played by Kaleb Moore, who is called back from Istanbul to London on urgent business.

Detective Poirot secures a first-class ticket on a peculiarly busy Orient Express with the assistance of his former friend and colleague, Orient Express train manager Constantine Bouc, played by Richard Kemp.

While aboard the Orient Express, Poirot meets a host of peculiar characters. Princess Natalia Dragamiroff, an aging Russian princess and her Swedish companion, Greta Ohlsson. A Hungarian countess, Countess Elena Andrenyi, a Southern housewife, a Scottish colonel, an English governess, a French conductor, a disagreeable American businessman, and his anxious secretary.

A lifeless body with numerous stab wounds is discovered in a locked train compartment after a snowdrift halts the Orient Express.

With a possible killer in their midst, Detective Poirot is tasked to solve the murder, with investigations, conflicting clues and convoluted alibis repeatedly leading him to dead ends.

“We talk about a three-year plan, and without going too far into it, you’ve got to be careful as a budding theatre company because there is so much theatre now post-COVID, which is brilliant, but we have always operated on the model of unique is more,” Kemp said.

“So the idea that you can offer something that audiences don’t expect, in no way, shape or form am I trying to discredit any other theatre company that does what they do, but we look at plays a little differently, maybe with a what would an audience want view and we deliberately picked a show (Murder on the Orient Express) that on the surface looks like it’s going to be serious and humdrum and a little bit by the book and ours isn’t.

“We immediately flipped the script, we’ve rewritten scenes, we’ve added scenes, we’ve put things in there that even an audience who thinks they’re coming along to see a Christie novel and love the novel will hopefully still love what we do but are totally unexpected and taken aback by the humour we add to it, the layers we add to it.”

To say you don’t want to miss this is an understatement. So climb aboard the Orient Express and let KCC Theatre blow your expectations away in what is anticipated to be another five-star performance.

KCC Theatre’s Murder on the Orient Express Gippsland Tour begins at Garnsey Hall in Sale, with shows on September 15 and 17.

Tickets are available here: www.trybooking.com/CKVCS

KCC Theatre will perform their rendition of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit in Bairnsdale at the Forge Theatre on September 22.

Tickets are available here: www.trybooking.com/CKJVA

KCC Theatre will conclude the Murder on the Orient Express Gippsland Tour in Traralgon with performances at the Little Theatre on October 21.

To find out more and for the most up-to-date information, head to KCC Theatre’s socials.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/KCCTheatreProductions

Instagram: www.instagram.com/theatrekcc

Cast List:

  • Hercule Poirot – Kaleb Moore
  • Constantine Bouc – Richard Kemp
  • Mary Debenham – Gracie Smit
  • Hector MacQueen – Mate Zilenko
  • Michel the Conductor – Hayden John
  • Princess Natalia Dragamiroff – Natalia Gojevic
  • Greta Ohlsson – Abby Kemp
  • Countess Elena Andrenyi – Chentelle Peck
  • Helen Hubbard – Abby Lee
  • Colonel James Arbuthnot – Connor Hodges