Agatha Christie beckoned, and I couldn’t resist. Thanks to a cancellation we scored last-minute tickets to a performance of Murder on the Nile, based on Christie’s 1937 novel Death on the Nile (coincidentally one of the few books from home that made the cut for the RV jaunt and has yet to be read), at the Acadia Repertory Theatre.

Every summer the Masonic Hall in Somesville, Maine, is converted into a 148-seat performance venue. The great thing about small theaters (like the outdoor Delacorte in NYC’s Central Park, home to annual Shakespeare productions) is that every seat in the house is pretty much a good one.

The theatre might be described as “low tech”  on its website, but the performance was well-acted, the setting atmospheric — a sitting room on a riverboat cruising along the Nile — the glamorous 1930s-style costumes divine, and the drama entertaining. Christie adapted the story for the stage, apparently thinking it best to cut crime-solver extraordinaire Hercule Poirot from the action and change the ending.

Actors at the Acadia Repertory Theatre do double duty, helping out with various tasks, and we recognized the fortune teller, who sold us our tickets; the French maid, who showed us to our seats; and the murderer, who had kindly directed us where to park earlier in the evening.