BECCA MARTIN-BROWN

bmartin@nwaonline.com

“I am encouraging my moustache to grow, GROW, and be ready for opening night!”

Jon Gustafson, most recently seen on the Fort Smith Little Theatre stage as Scrooge in November 2023, is back as an equally iconic character, Hercule Poirot, in “Murder on the Orient Express.” It’s a multi-dimensional role, as illustrated by the actors who have famously portrayed Agatha Christie’s mustachioed Belgian detective — Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Kenneth Branagh, David Suchet and even John Malkovich.

“All the actors play him differently,” said FSLT director Duff Taylor. “David Suchet is my favorite and seems to nail the odd little man, while the others have great strength, incredible acting awards, and unique presentations. Branagh is almost an action hero version, yet I enjoyed him and Albert Finney for his portrayals of Poirot’s eccentricities. I’ve tried to merge the best parts of those performances but give Jon Gustafson free rein to create his own version.”

“Eccentric just begins to capture him,” said Gustafson, who is in real life a neurologist in Fort Smith. “He is more than intelligent. His insights into people and their motivations are extraordinary. His memory for events, histories and scientific details is astounding. He is obnoxiously correct ‘all the time.’ But we learn he is not unassailable.

“Peter Ustinov is my closest model as I resemble him most closely, I think,” he mused. “I have always enjoyed Poirot stories, but I would not say that I am a serious fan. I am attracted to the role more by the large challenge it presents.

“If you don’t know, he talks A LOT,” Gustafson explained. “I am enjoying discovering his techniques more closely, and then I realize, many times, I am using his techniques during my interviews with patients as we study their more difficult diseases!”

The premise of the tale, which was first published as a novel in 1934, is that Poirot boards the famed Orient Express on his way home to London from Istanbul. The train’s sleeping car, divided into personal “compartments,” is remarkably full for the middle of winter, peopled with an American businessman, a wealthy and abrasive American matron, a Hungarian countess, a Russian princess, an English governess, a Scottish colonel and Poirot’s old friend, Monsieur Bouc, a director of the railroad line.

When one of the travelers dies and the train is stopped dead in its tracks by a record snowstorm, Poirot must solve the particularly puzzling murder.

This version of “Murder on the Orient Express” was created by playwright Ken Ludwig at the request of the Agatha Christie estate. Best known for his door-slamming farces — “Lend Me a Tenor,” “Moon Over Buffalo,” “Leading Ladies,” “The Fox on the Fairway” — Ludwig “is to contemporary domestic stage comedy what Arthur Miller was to the dramatic theater of his time,” a Contra Costa Times critic says, so you know there will be plenty of laughs.

“Ludwig’s adaptation of the novel is deceptively successful in its ability to remain true to the original storytelling while removing a few extraneous characters, setting priorities for the main characters, and creating a streamlined plot,” added Alan Sherrod, writing for Arts Knoxville in 2023.

“‘The ‘Queen of Crime’ really outdid herself in this one,” Taylor said. “It’s so much more than a simple ‘whodunit.’ It has layers of meaning, plus international intrigue from the fascinating travelers. It’s a real cast of characters!”

“Yet, an ultimate theme of the story is the personal crisis for Poirot,” countered Gustafson. “After a career of always being correct, he is faced with a moral and legal dilemma, and as the actor I need to reach deep inside myself to find that same crisis and then bring it out to the audience.”

Gustafson hopes audiences leave wondering. “What would I have done if I were in Poirot’s position once the solution was found? Did he act properly, or no?”

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FAQ

‘Murder on the Orient Express’

WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12-14; 2 p.m. Sept. 15; again Sept. 18-21

WHERE — Fort Smith Little Theatre, 401 N. Sixth St.

COST — $20 opening; $13 all other performances

INFO — (479) 783-2966, ext. 2, or fslt.org