Written by orange• June 21, 2025• 12:05 am• Laguna Playhouse, Review, Theater, Uncategorized

World Premiere: Peril in the Alps: A New Hercule Poirot Comic Mystery @ Laguna Playhouse – Review

Credit: Jason Niedle/Tethos

Written by Patrick Chavis

The world premiere of Peril in the Alps: A New Hercule Poirot Comic Mystery is playing now at the Laguna Playhouse June 11 – 29, 2025.

Stylish, lightly comedic, and full of that Agatha Christie sass without the Christie.

Steven Dietz has done it! He’s captured the fun and whimsy of Agatha Christie sans the feeling of danger she’s so good at eliciting in her dramatic mysteries. However, from the approach and direction, this show leans more toward the comedic and cerebral aspects of Christie’s writing than the darker and more melancholic.

Story:

Peril in the Alps follows the world’s great detective, Hercule Poirot, insert laugh, played by, Omri Schein. I have to say Schein’s performance is currently my favorite live rendition of Hercule. Schein is incredibly charismatic with this character. I believe he could pull off a one-person show with this character and make it work.

Hot Chocolate Advice:

He wanted cacao, and I wanted some, too. Few things are better than a solid cup of hot chocolate. If your breakfast place can’t serve a good cup of hot chocolate, they probably don’t serve a lot of other things well. It’s the Hot Chocolate Test, its success rate is more often than not correct.

The play has six actors playing multiple parts with a clever wall mechanism and blocking. The switch-ups are never too confusing. If anything, they become a part of the fun.

In this mystery, a kidnapped twin, Dulcie, played by Gabbie Adner, who plays both twins in this piece, has been abducted. Now, Hercule Poirot (Omri Schein), with help from Captain Hastings (Valerie Larsen), must go to the Swiss Alps with a plan to save the twins and capture the extortionists.

Written with the beats you would expect from these mysteries, I found a bit more humor thrown in —not laugh-out-loud humor, more like a chuckle. It’s a murder mystery, but this material would be fine for younger kids. The goofy hijinks are most definitely highlighted. I dub this Agatha Christie lite. It lacks bite, but it is still quite entertaining.

Set & Costume Design:

This piece includes tailored and primped suits from costume designer Elisa Benzoni that would give film director Christopher Nolan a run for his money.

With a design that looks like an abstracted house-framed structure, Marty Burnett’s scenic design is a colorful, fun house with revolving doors and many different applications. It is brought together with this precise and narrative-focused lighting, which really makes so many scenes, from Matthew Novotny.

A true ensemble piece, these actors perform much of this at a rather brisk pace but don’t miss a beat. The Poirot performance, though, is something special.

Gabbie Adner is doubly talented as both twins.

Light-hearted and a fine mystery, it’s playing now at the Laguna Playhouse.