''Murder on the Nile'' (sometimes titled ''Hidden Horizon'') is a 1944 murder mystery play by

crime writer Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

, based on her 1937 novel ''

Death on the Nile ''Death on the Nile'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at ...

''.

Background

The play is based on her 1937 novel ''

'' which in itself started off as a play which Christie called ''Moon on the Nile''. Once written, she decided it would do better as a book and she only resurrected the play version in 1942 when she was in the middle of writing the theatrical version of ''

And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery fiction, mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, who described it as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 N ...

'' and her actor friend Francis L. Sullivan was looking for a play in which

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...

might feature. Discussions took place until October as Christie was tired of the character of Poirot and wanted to exclude him from the drama altogether. She managed to persuade Sullivan of this plan when she promised to write into the play the part of a church canon for him to play. Once backing had been found, rehearsals for the play began in January 1944 in Dundee in which Christie enthusiastically joined, now that she was thoroughly enamoured of the theatre and its people. It premiered there on 17 January at the

Dundee Repertory Theatre Dundee Repertory Theatre, better known simply as the Dundee Rep, is a theatre and arts company in Dundee, Scotland. It operates as both a producing house with some shows co-produced by other theatres and a receiving house – hosting work from ...

and the title of the play had also been changed to ''Hidden Horizon''. For reasons not specified in her biography, these rehearsals and the plans to stage the play appear to have suffered delays to find a London theatre to take the show, once it had been tried out in the provinces. Matters were not helped by the lukewarm critical reaction to ''

Appointment with Death ''Appointment with Death'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 2 May 1938 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retai ...

'' when that play opened in March 1945. A further issue was the objection of an official from the Ministry of Labour to the presence of a

maid A maid, housemaid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids a ...

in the cast of characters. The play, with the name ''Murder on the Nile'' finally opened in the West End on 19 March 1946 at the Ambassadors Theatre, where six years later ''

The Mousetrap ''The Mousetrap'' is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The play opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be temporarily discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemi ...

'' would open. By this time, Sullivan was no longer in the cast. The play features fewer characters who were derived from multiple of the book's characters; Marie Van Schuyler and Mrs. Allerton are merged into the character of Helen ffoliot-ffoulkes while Cornelia Robson, Miss Bowers and Rosalie Otterbourne become Christina Grant. William Smith is a combination of Mr. Ferguson and Tim Allerton and the three characters of Hercule Poriot, Andrew Pennington and Jim Fanthorp become Canon Ambrose Pennefather. In addition, Simon Doyle's surname changes to Mostyn, Linnet Ridgeway is now Kay, and Jacqueline de Bellefort becomes Jacqueline de Severac. The characters of Salome Otterbourne, Signor Richetti and Colonel Race are dropped from the plot.

Scenes

Act 1: On the paddle steamer ''Lotus'' in late afternoon. Act 2
Scene 1: The same; three days later.
Scene 2: The same; five minutes later. Act 3: The same; the following morning.

Characters

The characters in ''Murder on the Nile'' are as follows. *Beadsellers, pesky peddlers of cheap trinkets *Steward, the head waiter *Miss Helen ffoliot-ffoulkes, a wealthy snob *Christina Grant, her niece *William Smith, a wise-cracking socialist *Louise, Kay Mostyn's maid *Dr Bessner, a psychologist and physician *Kay Mostyn, the "richest girl in England" *Simon Mostyn, Kay's husband *Canon Ambrose Pennefather, Kay's uncle and guardian *Jacqueline de Severac, Kay's ex-best friend and Simon's ex-fiancée *McNaught, the ''Lotuss captain

Reception of London production

Ivor Brown Ivor John Carnegie Brown CBE (25 April 1891 – 22 April 1974) was a British journalist and man of letters. After graduating from Oxford with top honours, he joined the civil service, but left after two days to pursue a freelance career as a ...

reviewed the play positively in the 24 March 1946 issue of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'': "As far as plot (intricate, of course) is concerned, the new Agatha Christie play might as well have tipped its corpses into the Thames. But Egypt offers the scene-painter a better chance (nicely taken by Danae Gaylen) and the off-stage tattoo of African percussion-music. The piece has the proper excitements of its hard-worked kind; a weakness lies in its blending of the usual mystery-mechanism with unusual human emotion. We have come to take our murders lightly in this kind of theatre; consequently a serious ending, with the guilty party nobly declining an obvious suicide at sacerdotal urgence, the better to find salvation via the scaffold, is too momentous a finale for so light a morsel of play-making. The previous and familiar appurtenance of clue and counter-clue one contentedly accepts: all this is apt enough – but must there be heaven, too? We leave with a sense of conflict. Has not the Oo-dun-it or Egyptian Butcher-bird been devoured in the last minute, by an 'Allegory on the Banks of the Nile'?" The play was reviewed in the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'' of 21 March 1946 by Bernard Buckham who said, "An Agatha Christie play, but a poor one. Various acts of violence on a pleasure steamer and it becomes a question of 'who murdered the bride?' At this time of day such a set-ups needs to have character interest, ingenuity of plot, and excitement. This piece falls down on them all. Most of the acting fireworks fall to the lot of Vivienne Bennett, and she touches them off very cleverly."

Credits of London production

Director: Claude Gurney ;Cast * Richard Spranger * Christmas Grose * James Roberts * Helen Haye * Joanna Derrill * Ronald Miller * Jacqueline Robert * Hugo Schuster *

Ivan Brandt Ivan Brandt (1903–1972) was a British stage and film actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the ...

* Rosemary Scott * David Horne * Vivienne Bennett * Walter Lindsay

Broadway production

Titled ''Hidden Horizon'', the play opened at the Plymouth Theater in New York on 19 September 1946 but only ran for twelve performances before closing on 28 September.IBDB page on play
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Credits of Broadway production

Director:

Albert de Courville Albert Pierre de Courville (26 March 1887 – 15 March 1960) (born in Croydon, England) was a writer and director of theatrical revues, many of which featured the actress and singer Shirley Kellogg, whom he married in June 1913. Career In abo ...

;Cast * C. K. Alexander as Steward *David Andrews as Bead Seller *Monty Banks Jr. as Bead Seller *

Diana Barrymore Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe (March 3, 1921 – January 25, 1960) was an American film and stage actress. Early life Born Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe in New York, New York, Diana Barrymore was the daughter of actor John Barrymore and hi ...

as Jacqueline De Severac *Blair Davies as Simon Mostyn *Leland Hamilton as Egyptian Policeman *

Halliwell Hobbes Herbert Halliwell Hobbes (16 November 187720 February 1962) was an English actor. Early years Hobbes's schooling came at Trinity College in Stratford-upon-Avon. Career Hobbes's stage debut was as a member of Frank Benson's company, in th ...

as Archdeacon Pennyfeather *Barbara Joyce as Kay Mostyn *

Edith Kingdon Gould Edith Kingdon Gould Martin (August 20, 1920 – August 17, 2004) was an American socialite, linguist, actress, and poet. Birth She was the daughter of financier Kingdon Gould Sr., granddaughter of financier George Jay Gould, and great-granddaug ...

as Louise *Eva Leonard-Boyne as Miss ffoliot-ffoulkes *

David Manners David Joseph Manners (born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom; April 30, 1900 – December 23, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor who played John Harker in Tod Browning's 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', which starred Bela Lugosi in the title role.Pa ...

as Smith *Damian Nimer as Egyptian Policeman *Joy Ann Page as Christina Grant *Winston Ross as McNaught *Peter Von Zerneck as Dr. Bessner

Publication

The play was published by Samuel French Ltd. in 1948 as ''Murder on the Nile'' as "French's Acting Edition No 174".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murder on the Nile Detective, mystery and crime plays Plays by Agatha Christie 1944 plays