Ken Ludwig’s Murder on the Orient Express

Technical Director/Designer

Murder on the Orient Express requires a fast-paced scenic concept inorder to keep the story moving. The star of the show is the train, and it needed to work clearly and quickly at every point. It was decided that we would do two seperate train cars that spun independantly of one another. In the end, we ended up with (2) 24’x12’ platforms that rotated freely on 20 casters each.

Concept

It was important to me that the train be accessible to the audience from multiple sides. I therefore had the delicate task of finding how to separate our playing spaces without jeopardizing sight lines. I decided to use 1x2 tube steel for all of the walls so we could keep the strength required to both rotate this large structure, but also give us enough visual clarity through the walls from any angle.

Needs of the show

Not only did the space need to shift and rotate, but our spaces needed to be cohesive. It was decided that the Dining Car would never spin, allowing the director to always have a safe way on and off the train for entrances/exits. Each of the Berths needed their own doors, as we wanted to spin the Sleeper Car to reveal Ratchet’s murder. We painted all hallway floors red, and each doorway gold so the actors knew the pathway to navigate the train around our invisible 4th walls.