Murder amid all the opulence at Chichester Festival Theatre

He has been playing Michel the conductor opposite Henry Goodman’s Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express (adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig, May 13-June 4).

“It is very exciting. I’m so lucky to be back in Chichester after a few years away. Taken At Midnight was the last time I was there and I think that must be seven years ago but I must admit I’ve got no conception of time suddenly for the last few years! Just take out two years! But the other really exciting thing is that this is (director) Jonathan Church’s first time back at Chichester and that’s very exciting as well and also there are lots of the team from Taken At Midnight on this as well. There are a lot of familiar faces, and there is also the designer from Taken At Midnight Rob Jones. But I was also at Chichester for Amadeus which was the opening show for the brand-new (post refurbishment) Festival Theatre. but before that my very first professional job was in Chichester with The Music Man in 2008 and I was also in Chichester for Singin’ In The Rain. The Music Man was such a lovely show and I was talking about it with Rob Jones because he designed that as well. We were chatting about the amazing band outfits that we had, and it was just such an amazing time, especially for my first job out of college. And back in those days Chichester was still doing the rep pattern of shows so you moved down for three months and we just had a great time. I remember meeting so many people.

“I love the fact that when you are a company, all away from home together, then you bond so much together and it’s just great to be hanging out together. I remember we had wonderful trips to the beach and the fact that we are all good friends is really lovely, but you’ve also got the staff of the theatre that see all the actors come and go and it always seems to me that we have lovely weather in Chichester.”

As for the show, Marc said: “I have seen some of the movies but before I auditioned I watched one just to get an idea of the accents and to see what was happening with them but really I think the joy of what we’re doing is the fact that we have got a brand-new version. There is the expectation that a lot of people will know the story but there is also the element of how much fun we can have with people who don’t know the story. I was just thinking that if I didn’t know the story and if I were in the audience I would want to watch it twice, a second time just to watch it knowing what happened. I watched the Branagh version on Netflix and it was amazing but our script is very different to that. There are lots of new elements. I went back to the book and I read the book and it’s great to be able to take a lot from that but it’s lovely to be doing a new version. There is something very grand and opulent about it. It’s very plush and great to look at.”