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If at first you do succeed, why not try again?
Playwright Steven Dietz began thinking about a second adaptation of an Agatha Christie work before his first, “Murder on the Links,” had even wound up its world-premiere engagement two years ago at North Coast Repertory Theatre. After an extended run at the Solana Beach theater, “Links” moved north to Laguna Playhouse. Meanwhile Dietz, back home in Austin, Texas, “started making notes on a sort of sequel to it.”
“I didn’t want to be done with some of these (Christie) characters,” Dietz recalled. “I thought: ‘How can I stay in this world that I’ve made?’”
Dietz ultimately turned to “Poirot Investigates,” a short-story collection featuring Christie’s brilliant (and brilliantly idiosyncratic) Belgian sleuth Hercules Poirot, who was portrayed in “Murder on the Links” by Omri Schein. “There’s cool stuff in there,” said Dietz. “I gravitated toward ‘The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge.’”
That tale, cobbled together with other Christie stories, became Dietz’s “Peril in the Alps,” which like “Murder on the Links” before it is making its world premiere at North Coast Rep.
Dietz explained the “intentional differences” between the two: “In ‘Links,’ there was one murder we were trying to solve. ‘Alps’ has a crime at the heart of it, and that crime is essentially a kidnapping. Someone close to (Poirot confidante and chronicler) Capt. Hastings is kidnapped. Rather than solving a murder, per se, Poirot is laying a trap.”
Dietz, who’s directing this production as he did with “Links,” couldn’t be happier about Schein returning to the role of one of mystery literature’s most famous detectives.
“There is something about him that captures the serious purpose of Poirot that also captures these inviting and effervescent eccentricities that my play needs,” said Dietz. “I consider him a gifted clown in the highest regard of the word. He can walk that line between investment and believability, and then disarming humor.
“Why in the world wouldn’t I write another play for Omri as Poirot? That whole experience with ‘Links’ was quite joyous, and he is at the center of it.”
Like “Murder in the Links” the new “Peril in the Alps” features a cast of six, with all actors but Schein playing a slew of characters. Brian Mackey returns from the previous show. The others in “Peril” are Valerie Larsen, Christopher M. Williams, Amanda Sitton and Gabbie Adner.
As with “Links,” in which Kim Morgan Dean played Hastings, “Peril” features Larsen in that male role.
“I really believe that great roles in dramatic literature should be available to actors of any gender,” said Dietz. “Giving access to great actresses in a (theatrical) community who’ve been given short shrift is overdue.”
The multiple characters the “Peril” cast takes on is in the spirit, Dietz said, of the Christie narrative device of doubling, “people pretending to be someone they’re not or donning multiple identities.”
“Peril in the Alps” is a production, he said, about “blurring traditional gender roles and letting a company of actors tell a story in the best way they can.” With both of his Christie adaptations, Dietz has relied on the stamina and spirit of his cast members.
“It’s been thrilling,” he said, “to come up with a way to codify an approach to ‘Links’ and ‘Alps.’ With this company of six, there’s barely enough people to do all the (over 30) characters in the story. We’re not spoofing this mystery. We are performing it with delight.”
‘Peril in the Alps’
When: Preview, 8 p.m. Friday. Opens Saturday, April 19, and runs through May 18. 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays
Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach
Tickets: $57-$69
Phone: 858-481-1055
Online:
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