Jeremy Tow
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When directing a play based on a novel, it is always a great temptation to go back to the original source to discover insights into characters, relationships and situations that may have been left out of the play. But by doing this, one faces a great temptation to make "improvements" to the text. So, this time around, I chose not to read the novel, but to trust Agatha Christie, since she adapted this story from her own novel into its theatrical form.
Christie was considered the master of the murder mystery, and for good reason: not only could she create intriguing plots filled with clues and red herrings that delight and fascinate
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her audience, but she could also tell a darn good story. That has been our mission in this production, to truthfully tell a good story: to find the depth and complexity in these characters, to uncover their secrets, and to delight in their passions, plots and counter plots...in other words, to trust Dame Agatha.
She chose to set this story on a boat named the Lotus: how suitable for a mysterious journey. The lotus flower is a spiritual symbol in cultures around the world. In Egyptian mythology, the lotus rises to the surface of the Nile at sunrise...and sinks beneath the water at night. And because of its connection to the sun, it was a symbol of life and the divine essence, and was used in religious ceremonies in which it was purported to bring euphoria, heightened awareness and tranquility.
In Buddhist teaching, the roots of a lotus are in the mud. The stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism (very apropos in our story), through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment.
In the Christian culture, in which Agatha Christie and the detective in our story are deeply steeped, the flower (or the human soul), must recognize the darkness (the mud) in which its soul has been imprisoned, and then choose to rise above it's errors, passing through the cleansing waters of the river to become the awakened soul (the whitened flower) that basks in the Truth (the brilliant blue sky).
This has been a fun AND enlightening journey for all of us, I hope you enjoy it, as well. And as the old Egyptians would say, "You are about to enter the hidden horizon."
Biography
Jeremy is an actor, director, playwright, and the Artistic Director of the Chemainus Theatre Festival CTF). He graduated with a BA in English from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, and from the three-year certificate program in acting at The Actors' Space in New York City. Favourite shows, as a director, include Jessie, award winning Agnes of God, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and for CTF: Driving Miss Daisy, The Heiress, A Streetcar Named Desire and My Fair Lady. In August, Jeremy will travel to Texas to play the title role in Hamlet at The Globe Theatre of the Great Southwest.
"There is a saying that if a man has any bad point it is sure to come out and shine in all its splendour on board a ship."
From Up the "Nile by Steam"
by R. Etzensberger; Thomas
Cook & Son, 1872
