Washington Playwright Ken Ludwig Reawakens ‘Death on the Nile’
By • December 18, 2024 0 8
Ken Ludwig didn’t want to be just another Washington lawyer. Instead, he used his law education and early law career to eat and support his passion, playwriting. He is now the most performed playwright of his generation.
Ludwig recalls the day several years ago when he received a phone call “out of the blue” from Agatha Christie’s only grandson, Mathew Prichard, calling on behalf of her estate. He asked Ludwig to adapt one of Christie’s murder mysteries for stage. Hence, “Orient Express” is currently touring in the U.K. and China. Then, they asked him to select another book to adapt to the stage. This time Ludwig suggested “Death on the Nile.” Christie’s thriller set in 1937. Its world premiere is now playing at Arena Stage through Dec. 29.
Why “Death on the Nile”? “I can do tricks,” explained Ludwig. “A well-known title with name recognition makes a difference.”
His creative task included converting 300 pages to eight short scenes. “She’s famous for all the red herrings,” Ludwig said. “I got rid of that and used the mystery as a center while keeping the triangle.” Still, such an arrangement has its own challenges to make it work dramatically.
“It’s a broad story in terms of multiple locations,” said Ludwig, adding that he didn’t conceive of it the way Arena’s production staff did. Arena used complicated and beautiful sets. For Ludwig, whose background as well as his passion is Shakespeare, “the story as a Shakespeare play – is not ‘set’ heavy—but tells a story through character.” He prefers to put the person in center stage.
This is a specific way of telling a story for the set designer. Ludwig says, as playwright, “I control every comma and breath of the play.” As the writer he has input, but “once a play goes out in the world, each theater makes choices. Some will choose a more minimalist approach.”
Ludwig compares himself to Shakespeare, in that he doesn’t wait for transitions. “If I had known this was the set I’d have written without more transition lines. It’s a specific kind of story-telling,” he said.
All of Ludwig’s work is set in the past, including his best-known play, “Lend Me A Tenor,” set in 1934, and “Moon Over Buffalo” in 1953. He likes those periods for comedies. “The distance allows me to be more antic, and it wasn’t such a challenging time. I can choose to ignore things going on in the world — or not. For example, I don’t use four-letter words or modern interjections. That distance is good for comedy.”
But in “Death on The Nile,” that distance also gives it somewhat of a dated feel although there are many amusing moments in this farce.
Ludwig, 74, who hails from a small Pennsylvania town, has spent most of his adult life in D.C. after moving here to join his older brother (Eugene Ludwig later served as Bill Clinton’s Comptroller of the Currency) here after Harvard Law School.
“I’m not a big city guy. I don’t like the hurly burly of New York,” Ludwig said. “There, everyone in my profession knows what everyone else is doing. For me, New York was a place where I thought I’d struggle.” That, of course, is unlikely since the New York Times called his first Broadway play, “Lend Me A Tenor” (1989), one of the two great farces by a living writer.
For Ludwig, unlike many Washingtonians, working as a lawyer was a way to earn a living to support his passion, playwriting. “Washington has an amazingly rich theater scene,” he noted. In fact, Roger Stevens produced his first show, “Lend Me a Tenor,” at the Kennedy Center prior to touring.
“I love living here—sidewalks, beautiful trees and yet ten minutes from the Kennedy Center. You can’t have a house with an acre of ground in New York City,” Ludwig said.
“New York, Broadway, is always a goal.” He explained that “New York is make or break. If a show closes, it has a taint on it. Then it will not play regional theaters. That’s always a concern in the business.”
Ludwig’s passion is working in England. “I’m a real Anglophile,” he said. The Tony and Olivier Award- winning playwright donated one million dollars this year to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to support conservation efforts for a historic home that belonged to Shakespeare’s daughter.
When asked if he thinks AI could ever replace him as a writer, Ludwig replied, “No way. No soul there. I’m a big Jane Austin guy and deeply involved in Shakespeare. Theater always finds a way, a path to continue living, producing and being vital. There will always be theater, and there will always be human beings who have a heart and talent. The passion is the heart.”
“Theater reflects the times,” said Ludwig, who likes work set in the past, adding, Instagram and TicTok are reflected in other works today.
He offers tips for wannabe playwrights: “Read! Read and Read! That’s how to understand how plays develop.”
“I’m a playwright. It’s a trade, a skill that matters.”
“I love writing. It’s so fulfilling,” said Ludwig, who in the coming months has plays opening in Sarasota, Florida, and off-Broadway in New York. “I wake up and look forward.”
