Theatre and Dance Reviews

Bill Kenwright knows about theatre, he knows what pleases audiences and what sells. Murder mysteries are just such shows, and in cannily being exclusively licensed by Agatha Christie Ltd to tour the UK with the stage adaptations of the bestselling author's work, he has hit the jackpot.

This production of his Agatha Christie Theatre Company's 'And Then There Were None', follows hot on the heels of the success of 'The Hollow' and 'The Unexpected Guest'. Christie's popularity is therefore clear as is the reason, for while the 1930s melodrama in the stage adaptations is often hilarious, you just have to know what happens and who indeed "dunnit"!

Chloe Newsome

Tense

The plot in this play revolves around ten strangers who are invited to spend a holiday in a mansion on a remote island. Upon their arrival, their mysterious host is missing but has left them a message on a gramophone record, informing them that they are all guilty of something. After some of the guests are found murdered, the survivors realise that the island killer is one of them. And what ensues is a tense cat-and-mouse game as they attempt to determine who it is.

The novel was first published in 1939, and the tension of the story translates well to a modern audience, indeed - there is now even a video game of it now! But the actual mechanics of the play, which is Christie’s own adaptation, has to be seen as a document of its time, particularly in the language.

It's hard for us in today's age to imagine a time when people actually lived and spoke in this way - I can barely remember a time when people were as polite to each other as they are, but I am told that they were - once! The plumby accents and melodramatic phrasing make it really difficult for actors to be convincing to a modern audience, but the group in this production take it for what it is and perform it to the best of their ability and manage to really get the tension going.

Alex Ferns uses some of the looks from his Trevor from EastEnders repertoire to good effect, although I have to say he is completely different in this and shows that he is definitely not a one trick pony! Since playing Steve McDonald's first wife in Corrie, Chloe Newsome seems to have made a bit of a career out of murder mysteries and her experience in the genre shows. There's no room for intricacies of character here, you just have to tell the story and the rest of the cast including Gerald Harper, Peter Byrne, Denis Lill and Mark Wynter play their parts exactly right.

Enthralled

The tension builds, in proportion to the body count, and, with bars on the windows, the art-deco drawing room designed by Simon Scullion adds to the prisoner-like feeling and some very dramatic music was also used to great effect - I nearly leapt out of my seat!

And Then There Were None

A good sign for this production is that I did want to keep watching to find out what happened. I've always been rubbish at murder mysteries, Inspector Morse I am not! But during this show, which is considered one of Agatha Christie's greatest and most popular mysteries, I worked out who had done it - then I hadn't, then I had again, and this was enough to keep me watching with interest. Even though the final question of who and why was easier to explain than a phone-in competition, and I questioned the final actions as being highly improbable, it was all enough to keep me, and it would seem the rest of the audience, enthralled.

This is the sort of murder mystery that should be on TV of a Sunday evening before ice skating took over on the box but I guess in some ways, as indeed the programme notes point out, it is very similar to that kind of reality TV!

Ten people, trapped in one location as one by one they are disposed of - although in this case it is by actual murder rather than the character assassination that is today's viewer phone vote!

Let's get some Channel 4 executives in to see this show - I've thought of a fantastic new twist for this year's Big Brother!