DramaLondonReview

And Then There Were None – Richmond Theatre, London

Reviewer: Scott Matthewman

Writer: Agatha Christie

Director: Lucy Bailey

Although Agatha Christie is best known for her series of novels including Poirot and Miss Marple, when shorn of those sleuths her writing was far more electrifying: always able to shed more light on the psychological impact of murder, be that on victims, relatives, suspects – or perpetrators.

Christie’s 1939 novel And Then There Were None was first adapted for the stage by Christie herself in 1943, formally starting her second career as a playwright (although 1930’s Black Coffee was her first work for the stage). And it’s a beast of a work demanding a large cast, given that the story concerns ten individuals attending a dinner party on a remote island, a mile off the coast of Devon.

Given that none of the characters (bar servants Pinchbeck and Rogers, here a same-sex couple played by Nicola May-Taylor and Lucy Tregear) know each other, the opening moments of the play are weighed down with introductions as the cast begins to assemble. Sophie Walter’s Vera Claythorne and Joseph Beattie as dashing army caption Lombard make the strongest impression as a young pair of singletons who seem to be attracted to one another, while Andrew Lancel brings light relief as a bombastic South African who is not all he seems.

It takes a while, then for the murder plot, in which each island visitor gets bumped off one by one in seeming retribution for themselves being responsible for someone else’s death, to get going. As the body count piles up, Christie begins to explore each character’s back story, from the general (Jeffery Kissoon) who knowingly sent his wife’s lover to certain death in the trenches of Passchendaele to Oliver Clayton’s carefree playboy whose reckless driving had fatal consequences.

One slightly jarring note is Katy Stephens’s portrayal of Miss Brent, a bible-bashing puritan. The characterisation is so grandiose, and almost pantomimic, compared with the others on stage that it never quite gels with the rest of the production.

It is not until the cast begins thinning out that the psychological examination really gets going. Thus is it that the second act, with half the cast remaining and convinced that one among them must be the murderer, is by far the more interesting. Director Lucy Bailey ratchets up the tension, giving events a chillingly sinister, visceral air – “cosy crime” this most definitely is not.

It is perhaps wise not to dwell on which island residents remain at this stage for fear of spoilers, other than to say that this production restores the conclusion from Christie’s book. The author originally gave her adaptation some semblance of a happy ending. By contrast, this production’s conclusion is bleak, shocking and, if one were to entertain notions of agreeing with the event’s organiser, totally justified.

Matters all play out in an art deco-inspired box, designed by Mike Britton with swaths of sand banks intruding into a lush stateroom. The mansion which has been built on this remote, inhospitable island cannot withstand entropy, it suggests: it is a house of cards that, like the lives of those who face this extreme form of vigilante justice, will soon be lost to the waves.

And that is part of the appeal of this story, which in book form has become the best-selling mystery novel of all time. It is Agatha Christie at her best: exposing that murder has consequences far beyond being a puzzle to be solved by a detective. And Then There Were None is a dark, twisted tale: a tribute to the author’s genius.

Runs until 4 November 2023 and continues to tour

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Dark, twisted tale

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The Reviews Hub London is under the editorship of Richard Maguire. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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