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And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

24th October 2023 - 28th October 2023

 

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

Ten strangers are lured to a solitary mansion off the coast of Devon. When a storm cuts them off from the mainland, the true reason for their presence on the island becomes horribly clear.

None of us will ever leave this island

Directed by Lucy Bailey (Witness for the Prosecution, Love from a Stranger), this brand-new production of the bestselling crime novel of all time will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don’t miss Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

**** “GRIPPING ENTERTAINMENT” THE TIMES ON LUCY BAILEY’S LOVE FROM A STRANGER

**** “BAILEY TURNS THE SCREW WITH EVERY SCENE” WHATSONSTAGE ON LUCY BAILEY’S GASLIGHT

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Age recommendation 12+ parental guidance

We don’t want to spoil anyone’s experience of coming to see And Then There Were None, however, if you would benefit from knowing more about specific content and themes in the play, please click below:

And Then There Were None contains:
• Themes of death, grief and guilt.
• Reference to, and depictions of, murder, manslaughter and suicide by hanging.
• Please also note that recorded gun shots and brief flashing lights form part of the production.


Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

And Then There Were None © 1939, 1943 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved. AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, AGATHA CHRISTIE and the Agatha Christie Signature are registered trademarks of Agatha Christie Limited in the UK and elsewhere. All rights reserved.

Details

Start:
24th October 2023
End:
28th October 2023
Event Categories:
, , ,

Venue

Festival Theatre
Grange Road
Malvern, WR14 3HB

Other

Price:
Tues Eve, Wed & Thurs Mats: £35.84, £33.60, £30.24, £26.88 & £23.52
Wed-Thurs Eves & Sat Mat: £38.08, £35.84, £32.48, £29.12 & £25.76
Fri & Sat Eves: £40.32, £38.08, £34.72, £31.36 & £28
Concessions £2 off
Members discounts apply
Prices include 12% booking fee
Show Times:
Tuesday 24th to Saturday 28th October '23
Evenings at 7.30pm
Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

Event Reviews

  • Showtime! John Phillpott

    All set for an evening of cosy murder, I packed my virtual duvet and merrily headed for Malvern in the expectation of viewing a couple of hours of genteel life terminations.

    You know how it is with Agatha Christie. The opening scene’s invariably a chintzy drawing room lined with books, probably smelling of stale fry-ups and mothballs, populated with disparate characters all with something to hide.

    And when dastardly doings do occur, there’s no blood or visible injury, just the sharp crack of an antique Webley revolver, and the odd stifled groan or two.

    That’s it – job done, next please. Time to snuggle down again with a glass of sweet sherry.

    Well think again. Director Lucy Bailey has taken this classic by the scruff of its tuxedo lapels, given it a firm slap, and reimagined the play in a welter of guilt, blood – yes, yes absolute shock horror, the dreaded red stuff – and turned the entire Christie formula on its head.

    For a start, there’s enough gore to start a mobile blood transfusion unit. Britain’s collapsed National Health Service please take note. And at times, this adaptation becomes so Gothic that I started checking my receding hairline for bats.

    Yes indeed. This is Agatha Christie folks, but certainly not as we know it.

    So first of all let’s deal with the guilt factor. As we know, British society is riven with the wretched stuff these days, and the same seemed to apply to the country on the eve of the Second World War.

    Marooned in this creepy hotel and cut off by the tide, the individuals in this assorted gathering all have something to hide, and are therefore ripe for being on the receiving end of grisly revenge.

    To emphasise the point, Bailey employs ghost-like apparitions. The gloriously Blimp-ish General MacKenzie (Jeffery Kissoon) and the arrogant Captain Lombard (Joseph Beattie) are plainly not going to get away with having sent First World War infantrymen to their deaths.

    Therefore, it’s no wonder that they’re also sent on their way long before the next dinner gong will echo down this hellish hall.

    Likewise, Doctor Armstrong (Bob Barrett), who speculates that he may, on reflection, have been a bit laissez faire with the old surgeon’s knife. Then there's William Blore, portrayed with relentlessly suspicious hyperactivity by Andrew Lancel. And so on.

    Only the imperious Judge Wargrave, played with a relaxed, imperious grandeur by David Yelland, seems to be immune from human frailty. There’s always one goody-two-shoes, isn’t there?

    Meanwhile, Vera Claythorne (Sophie Walter) is endlessly entertaining, veering from upper class totty togged out in silken evening wear, to deranged she-devil in the time it takes to down another scotch, which – incidentally – seems to be running like the tidal flow around this doomed island.

    With a minimal set, plus a few judicious thunderclaps spiced with a dash of artillery fire, this is edgy, in-your-face theatre, created by a director who’s not afraid to kick over the traces.

    The Agatha Christie loyalists will possibly harrumph a bit, and the odd Malvern monocle may indeed shatter into shards, what with the shock of it all.

    But all I know is this… that it’s perhaps a good job I had the good sense to leave the duvet - along with my hedgehog pattern pyjamas - in the car.

  • The View from the Stalls - Pete Phillips

    Classic Christie done in an inventive way

    One isolated island. Eight "guests". Two waiting staff. No host present.

    These are the elements which are the basis of Agatha' Christie's best-selling novel "And then there were none". It is also her most parodied story which is in itself an indication of how much it is held in high esteem across the world. It is a little-concealed fact that the location of the story is one of her favourite places, Burgh Island off the Devon coast (renamed here Soldier Island and pushed rather further out to sea), a haunt where she also took advantage of this Art Deco modernist retreat to write Evil Under The Sun. The book itself has various other names before Christie settled on this one - based around ten little soldier statues representing the ten characters, it was previously "Ten Little Indians" and before that something which we cannot mention these days…

    A book where the characters can be developed over time is one thing but a stage play of just over two hours is something completely different, needing to convey the claustrophobic and threatening atmosphere quickly and successfully to win over the audience. And as each of these apparently randomly-selected guests has a back story, this needs to be conveyed as well. The clever stage design allows both aspects to be enacted and whilst it takes a while for the guests (unlike probably the audience) to realise their killer probably walks amongst them, this just adds to the intensity as their numbers reduce. The deaths are pretty varied - poison (one of Christie's favourite methods of demise, having a great knowledge of the propensity of various poisons to cause death), stabbing, a bee sting - all following the pattern determined by an old rhyme of which they are all aware. For example, this rather strange one (which at least explains what we first see on stage on entering the auditorium): "Three little Soldier Boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two". So they know what the next fate will be but not who will succumb to it.

    The characters cover a wide range of professions: Mr Justice Wargrave, a retired criminal judge (David Yelland), William Blore, a former police inspector (Andrew Lancel) , General Mackenzie (Jeffery Kissoon), Philip Lombard, a soldier of fortune (Joseph Beattie), Emily Brent, an elderly pious spinster (Katy Stephens), Vera Claythorne, a secretary for the absent hosts (Sophie Walter), Doctor Armstrong (Bob Barrett), Anthony Marston (Oliver Clayton), the caretakers Georgina Rogers and Jane Pinchbeck (Lucy Tregear and Nicola May-Taylor). Behind a gauze curtain, the reason for them being there is also revealed as we learn about their history as diverse as operating on a patient whilst drunk or the result of becoming pregnant out of wedlock. And the culmination of this killing spree is done in an incredibly dynamic and unsettling way.

    Take your pick as to who might be the culprit. Only to find that your choice of killer is the next one to meet their maker! So who's left after all this carnage? Without giving too much away, the clue is in the title…

  • Fairy Powered Productions - Courie Amado Juneau

    Agatha Christie continues to thrill us with “And Then There Were None” – which I read is one of her most popular works, despite having neither of her two big hitters (Poirot or Marple) in it.

    Ten characters are invited to Soldier Island for diverse reasons. Events unravel rapidly as things are not entirely as they seem and not everyone is being candid about their identity (or past). When the murders start and the significance of the Ten Little Soliders poem in each guest’s room becomes apparent, then the soldier statuettes on the table disappear with each dispatched guest, the madness truly begins.

    It’s not often I begin a review with the Set Designer but Mike Britton deserves a lot of praise for producing a space which is substantial and yet leaves much to the imagination. It combines different elements in a condensed space – the painted walls becoming the distant sea at one point, the curtain separates the inside and out and acts like an internal wall but also as a metaphorical cinema screen to the soul (whereupon flashbacks happen). It was hard to tell sometimes where the island ended and the house began, the sloping stage sometimes being inside and sometimes outside the house – giving an even more off kilter effect – a bit like the movie The Haunting with the odd camera angles keeping us on edge and off balance. A perfect setting!

    A really hard one to critique without giving the game away – especially when it comes to praising the actors for their individual qualities. That said, I was particularly impressed with Katy Stephens as Emily Brent and Sophie Walter as Vera Claythorne for producing strong women at either end of the philosophical spectrum. Also, Bob Barrett as Dr Armstrong, Jeffery Kissoon as General Mackenzie and David Yelland as Judge Wargrave who all gave performances with impressive gravitas that conveyed the status of their characters. Those who survived the longest obviously got more of the manic stuff to play and impressed the most – but, as I said, no spoilers so…

    The entire production had a wonderful cinematic quality to it. The costumes were lavish and there was clever use of lighting and music to evoke atmosphere and ramp up the intense claustrophobia and unseen menace. The darkness was almost a character in its own right. Every element added to the overall impression of a production that has benefited from the expertise of a very talented team.

    Lucy Bailey’s fine directing give us a compelling reading of this Christie classic, with a contemporary feel even though it was authentically set in the original 1939 – quite a masterstroke! Every last drop of everything was wrung out of the actors and nothing was left in the rehearsal room. Truly impressive.

    The play had a natural crescendo – the second half especially really flew by like a runaway train with no brakes. The set became more strewn with debris as the remaining characters descended into the madness, anxiety, guilt, suspicion etc… Until the truly shocking ending. In a word – brilliant.

    The Queen of Crime given the right royal treatment. I would wholeheartedly recommend getting yourself a ticket now. Don’t kick yourself later after leaving it until there were none.

  • Birmingham Live - Alison Brinkworth

    When it comes to Agatha Christie, this chilling tale is her creme de la creme. The Mousetrap may be the longest running on stage but And Then There Were None is the world's best-selling mystery.

    With an enormous body count and horrific killings, this new blood-thirsty production of the Queen of Crime's best-seller is on a UK tour that is currently at Malvern Theatres in Worcestershire until Saturday, October 28. It won't reach Birmingham until March 5 to 9 at the Alexandra Theatre but avid crime fans may not be able to wait that long.

    This is the one where 10 strangers are lured to solitary Soldier Island off the coast of Devon, where there's no phone and no boats to escape. The jubilant air of the new arrivals in 1930s Britain soon fades when after dinner and cocktails, the gramophone plays a chilling message accusing all of the guests of separate murders.

    With no way to escape, what started out as a welcome sejour soon becomes a fight for survival as members of the party start to be killed off one by one.

    Director Lucy Bailey has good form of bringing Christie who-dunnits to the stage as she was also behind London's exceptional Witness for the Prosecution that is now in its sixth year. She cleverly adapts the scenery subtly to make the atmosphere seem more and more claustrophobic as the story progresses.

    What starts out as elegant art deco rooms, unravel into a messy haphazard space, as do the guests' minds and accusations. It's a tour de force in psychology as well as murder.

    As the remaining suspects are left literally climbing the walls in anxiety, the audience feels that biting tension too. While many of the murders are done tastefully and some off stage, there is a particularly shocking close to the show. It's got to be the most gruesome finale I've ever seen.

    It's drawn out and slow and utterly realistic, which makes it more haunting. It sent shivers through the crowd.

    This production by Royal Derngate and Northampton is rather fine. The back stories of the guests are played out at the back of stage in silhouette and there's a cast of famous faces.

    Among them is Coronation Street's Andrew Lancel, who won Villain of the Year at the British Soap Awards for his turn as Frank Foster. Then there's Joseph Beattie, who played Malachi in TV series Hex, Jeffery Kissoon of movies including Dirty Pretty Things, plus acclaimed Chariots of Fire actor David Yelland, to name a few.

    Award-winning Katy Stephens, who is normally on stage doing Shakespeare for the RSC, relishes the mean role as sarcastic Emily Brent and steals every scene she is in. Relative newcomer Sophie Walter is impressive as she holds her own amongst an experienced cast as adaptable Vera Claythorne.

    Putting on a good Agatha Christie tale isn't easy as it goes far beyond just the scenery and costume. This new version of And Then There Were None hits just the right tone with a good flow of action that never dulls, despite the complicated storyline.

    It's chilling, gory and a thoroughly satisfying murder mystery that Christie fans will adore.


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