Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
MHCSummerTheatre@MtHolyoke.edu
through July 11, 2026
by Nechama Katan
by Nechama Katan
All aboard! After a 25 year wait, Mt. Holyoke College Summer Theatre has finally pulled its inaugural season into the station, and the ride is well worth the ticket.
For those who don't know the story: when a passenger turns up murdered in his locked compartment on the snowbound Orient Express, the world's most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, must sift through a train car full of secrets, lies, and suspects before the killer strikes again. Ken Ludwig's stage adaptation of the Agatha Christie classic keeps the whodunit twisty right up to the final reveal.
Sam Samuels anchors the show as Poirot, bringing the detective's fussy precision and quiet command to every scene without ever tipping into caricature. Wally Marsano-Lesnevich is a delight as Monsieur Bouc, the railway director whose composure crumbles convincingly as the suspect count grows. Emma Yee, a student performer, makes the mousy missionary Greta Ohlsson genuinely memorable, no small feat in a play stuffed with big personalities.
This company is built on an unusual mix: students and professional actors. There are too many to mention each one's performance. The professionals take on the larger roles, and the pairing works. It's difficult to discern which actors belong in which category. That's the whole point, and it works.
Artistic Director Noah Ilya-Alexis Tuleja, who said of the production, "After 25 years this train is finally leaving the station and you won't want to miss this ride!", threads in touches of humor that keep what could be a very heavy play light on its feet.
Alina Tschumakow's set is more functional than fancy, a handful of pieces that the cast itself wheels and carries into place to turn a hotel in Istanbul into first class train compartments and then a dining car. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it does. The curtain gets a real workout too, doing double duty as scenery and as its own bit of stagecraft. Managing Director and costume designer Jensen Glick, along with Sam Skynner's lighting and Gillian Tomlinson's sound design, round out a team clearly working with a modest budget and a lot of imagination. There are more names on the crew list, and every one of them earns a bow.
The venue is a dance theatre pressed into service as a playhouse, general admission. There truly isn't a bad seat in the house, and air-conditioning held up well during this heatwave. The seats are surprisingly comfortable for a studio space. The audience's attention leans in at exactly the right moments for a mystery plot. Enjoyable, as with most who-dun-it plays are the murmuring theories at intermission.
For those not particularly familiar with Christie's stories, watching how the characters build out and are played will be enjoyable. Those in the audience who do not know the story will enjoy a genuinely fun puzzle. Mt. Holyoke is an easy trip from the Springfield area, and the acting is stronger than the price has any right to promise. When this train pulls out of the station, make sure you are on it, and pencil in "39 Steps" for later in the season.
