After playing The Beast in “Disney’s Beauty & The Beast” at the beginning of this summer season, and then two ensemble roles, Liam Fisher is returning to a lead role in the murder mystery “Murder on the Orient Express” at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts.
The play, based on Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name, is on the Warsaw stage July 18-27.
Fisher plays the detective, Hercule Poirot, in “Murder on the Orient Express.”
“He is quite the character. The whole story kind of rides on him because the audience is following his story and trying to solve it along with him, which is really cool that the audience is kind of involved in solving the crime a little bit. It’s really interesting. It’s a fun character to play as well,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
Kira Lace Hawkins, who plays Helen Hubbard, said, “Liam is not wrong. The character is this famous detective. Everyone perks up when they hear his name and say, ‘Oh!’ He’s almost a celebrity of the time.”
She stated that the Wagon Wheel is “so lucky” to have Fisher in the role of Poirot.
“He’s absolutely carrying the show. Absolutely just having everyone rise to his occasion. It’s awesome to have him in that role,” Hawkins said.
The story unfolds aboard the luxurious and iconic Orient Express train, where Poirot finds himself on a journey with an eclectic group of passengers. When a murder occurs on the train, Poirot must use his brilliant deduction skills to unravel the complex web of clues and motives that surround the crime, according to a synopsis of the show on the Wagon Wheel website.
For her role, Hawkins said she and Hubbard have a little bit in common.
“It’s actually really fun for me personally because I am from Minnesota. She’s from Minnesota,” she said. “One of the fun things about ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ are the amazing accents that we get to bring to the stage. There’s Swedish, there’s Belgian, there’s French. Russian. Scottish. Hungarian. So we are all over the place, and I get to come on with a Minnesota accent, don’tcha know!”
Hawkins said it’s really fun to hear everyone else’s accents and stay true to their own. “It highlights everyone’s character, it’s really fun.”
Before this show, Fisher had never done a French/Belgian mixed accent. He actually struggled with getting the accent down for a couple weeks coming into the role, especially since he speaks a lot in the play.
“The biggest obstacle that I had to face was staying true to the accent, but also not having it so thick that the audience doesn’t understand what I’m saying, so that took a lot of practice on my part, and Kira was super helpful and gave me a bunch of resources. She’s been around the block. She sent me a bunch of resources. We had help from the directors and just anybody that is willing to give me some help, they helped a lot, and I think we’re getting there,” he said.
Hawkins said for a lot of actors learning an accent it’s watching movies, looking up YouTube links of real people talking and help from dialect coaches.
“It should be accurate. Of course, here, we strive for that kind of accuracy,” she said.
“And we have a bunch of resources here to help make that possible,” Fisher said.
On Hubbard, Hawkins said takes over any room that she enters. She’s kind of bombastic and very performative.
“This is really hard because if you try to describe her too well, you’ll end up giving away the story, and that’s part of the fun that the audiences will be able to come see the show and they’re solving the murder with us,” Fisher said. “Somebody died, obviously, that’s something I can say because ‘Murder on the Orient Express,’ but every character has their own clues and they bring with them their own clues, and it’s kind of up to the audience to figure those out, which is really exciting. But we have to be very careful what we say right now.”
There are some similarities between Poirot and that other famous detective, Sherlock Holmes.
“It’s actually referenced in the show. They compare my character to Sherlock Holmes. Like I said, there are some similarities between my character and Sherlock Holmes, but there’s also like a very different side to him. (He’s) very methodical and very intuitive,” Fisher said.
Hawkins added, “I would say maybe less passion. I feel like Sherlock Holmes has this grandeur and Hercule Poirot is very methodical, very cold and calculating, even though there is a lot of passion underneath as well.”
Holmes is a performer and he solves crimes for performance, Fisher said, while Poirot solves crime for passion. Solving crimes is what Poirot does for a living and it’s what he lives by.
“The whole crux of this show is this idea of true justice and what is right and what is wrong, and I think that’s the method that Poirot uses,” Hawkins said.
The whole show is set within a single 24-hour period on a train, which also gets stranded in a snowstorm.
“It’s very quick, and that just kind of proves how methodical my character is,” Fisher said. “The crime is solved by the end. You’ll walk out of the theater and be like, ‘Wow! OK.’ But it’s very quick. It’s not a long period of time that passes throughout this train. It’s quite literally one night and one morning, and that’s it.”
The time period is 1934. Hawkins said all the wigs, costumes and stylings are of that time period. Fisher said even the set is true to the time period.
As serious and dark as “Murder” may be, the play also offers a few laughs.
“Interestingly enough, you wouldn’t think of an Agatha Christie adaptation being a comedy, but the guy who adapted it is Ken Ludwig, whose responsible for ‘Lend Me a Tenor,’ he’s responsible for ... lots of plays that are comedies. And so when you hear the name Ken Ludwig, you know he’s going to do what he can to add to some humor into the adaptation,” Hawkins said. “I know I can speak to my character specifically as they’re a little bit for comic relief and there are a couple other characters that are given little tidbits of jokes.”
Even the way Fisher brings Poirot to life makes the show hilarious at times, she said. “I think it’s a well-rounded, delightful evening of entertainment.”
After Hawkins praised Fisher’s performance in the show throughout the interview, he returned the compliments, saying working with her is unbelieveable.
“Obviously, as somebody who’s - like I said, ‘been around the block’ - somebody who’s done so many professional shows here, it’s very clear that she knows what she’s doing, she knows what the show needs and it’s very fun to learn from her as well, and I can speak for all of the actors here because we’re all young actors, and to be able to have Kira grace the stage every time is just unbelieveable. I can not say enough good stuff about her,” Fisher stated.
He and Hawkins are in all five shows this summer at the Wagon Wheel. Fisher said this play is a change of pace, especially from the three prior musicals they’ve done.
“There are some dark moments in the show. Thrilling. But, a definitely a change of pace, but it’s exciting as performers and I think the audience will agree,” he said.
On whether or not the show is appropriate for kids, Hawkins said there are some heavy moments in the play as there is a murder on the stage. “You do see the body. You see some blood. There are some things, but really more so it’s about can they get engaged in spoken word for that long, that’s a thing, too, and there are kids that won’t be interested in that.”
Fisher said the show is a perfect length at 50 minutes in the first act and 50 minutes for the second act, with an intermission in between.
“For the kids that can’t sit still, this is a perfect show,” he stated.
Hawkins said “Murder” has a really fun twist at the end of the show. It will surprise the audience, takes them on twists and turns. Just when the audience thinks they have it figured out, “it kind of blows you away at the end, so it’s pretty fun.”
Fisher said that goes for people who have read the book, seen one of the film versions or another version of the play.
“Our version is different. It might end the same way, but along the way there are some different tricks and tidbits that we’ve added that make the show just as exciting, even more excited,” he said.
Being his first season at the Wagon Wheel, Fisher said he could list about 10 different things he’s learned.
“The one that really sticks out is the idea of family and being connected with this cast. You have to have a lot of trust when you’re on stage with these people, especially when you’re talking about stuff that is as dark as it is, but it’s the same with the musicals. You have to that kind of trust when you’re dancing next to somebody or let’s say you’re doing a lift - you have to trust the people on stage. And there is nobody that I would rather be in these shows with than our beautiful cast. I trust them so much. I love them. We’ve grown together,” he said.
Having done 16-17 summer seasons now at the Wagon Wheel, Hawkins said what makes this season a little different than the rest was, “It’s interesting, and we’re starting to sound like broken records backstage, but the leadership here is remarking of what a special group it is this summer in particular.”
She said that’s a super power of Artistic Director Scott Michaels - hiring people that he just has an intuition about who can put in the necessary work and maintain a kind nature.
“It’s very important though, it’s very important,” agreed Fishers. “If there’s even one person - hypothetically - causing any problems, it could derail the entire process, it can derail the train. It’s super important to have that kind of connection and be that involved with each other.”
Hawkins said Wagon Wheel leadership works really hard to create a safe space for everyone.
“I guess from the leadership perspective, just making sure that our actors, our crew members, our orchestra members have autonomy. ... I think that overall helps us to nature a real family feel like that where people can trust each other and trust this place within this community,” she said.