Agatha Christie, Britain’s “Queen of Crime”, is probably the best-known and best-loved of 20th Century mystery writers. Creator of short stories and novels, perhaps Christie’s best known character is the fastidious Belgian detective Hercules Poirot, who solves crimes through logic and psychology using his formidable brain. Poirot’s talents are put to the test in Murder on the Links, adapted from her novel and directed by Darko Tresnjak, and now on display at Two River Theatre in Red Bank.
Poirot (Campbell Scott) is summoned to the north of France by the wealthy Paul Renauld (voiced by Patrick Page), who fears for his life. Poirot arrives only to find Renauld has been murdered, his body dumped into a fresh grave dug into a golf course. Working with Police Commissioner Bex (Jason O’Connell), Poirot is faced with a number of possible suspects: Renauld’s widow (Kate Baldwin); their son Jack (José Espinosa); Madame Dubois, a woman with a reputation (Lauren Worsham); and her daughter Marthe (María Bilbao) who is in a romantic relationship with Jack.
When a second body is discovered, Poirot and his little gray cells are put to the test. Who killed Renauld? What was the motive? Who was the second victim, and why did his body produce so little blood?
The first act of the play seems to drag, as it is necessary to explain who all the characters are and their relationships to each other. Clues, alibis, and odd behaviors need to be thrown in the path of our intrepid detective. The second act, though, moves more quickly as Poirot deduces, with his power of logic and knowledge of psychology, the astonishing truth.
With many mysteries, especially many of Christie’s, characters are reduced to stereotypes in service of the plot. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case in this adaptation of Murder on the Links for the stage. And with the novel’s adaptor also being the director, the talented cast is not well served. Chief among these are Kate Baldwin, a fine actress in previous roles, here playing a rather flat version of an ice queen whose forays into showing any kind of deep emotional reaction look unnatural. Campbell Scott’s Poirot is at least spared some of the more irritating identifying mannerisms from Christie’s other stories, but previous portrayers of the Belgian detective (Tony Randall, Peter Ustinov, and Kenneth Branagh for example) have managed to place their stamp on the character more forcefully. The only cast member spared from cliche is the unseen Patrick Page, voicing Paul Renaud through his letters and the memories of others.
Alexander Dodge has created a clever, atmospheric set, utilizing an onstage trap door for the golf course gravesite, suggesting the Renauld home using revealing panels and doorways, and placing a waiting guillotine on an upper level in the set’s back wall at the start and end of the play. (The guillotine was France’s execution instrument of choice for nearly a century until capital punishment was abolished in 1981.)
The lighting, by Pablo Santiago, and the sound design of Megumi Katayama add to the realism of Dodge’s scenic design, while Jess Goldstein’s costumes are perfect in setting the between-the-wars era in which the play is set as well as delineating class distinctions between the characters.
Murder on the Links, in its novel form, is not regarded as one of Agatha Christie’s masterpieces. However, its play adaptation demonstrates Christie’s trademark cleverness in the creation of a crime and its solution, as well as gently introducing audiences to one of her best-known creations, Hercule Poirot. As such, it is a fairly solid entertainment as summer fades to autumn. If murder mysteries are your thing, or if you are a fan of Agatha Christie’s body of work, you should enjoy matching wits with Poirot in solving the case of Murder on the Links.
Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Links is presented in the Robert and Joan Rechnitz Theatre at Two River Theatre in Red Bank through Oct. 5, 2025. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to tworivertheater.org.