And Then There Were None – but not soon enough
Mayflower Theatre Southampton until 13th April
Review: 8th April 2024
With more than 100 million copies sold, And Then There Were None is not only Agatha Christie’s bestselling book but also the bestselling mystery novel, in the world, ever. Even if you’ve never read the book, the chances are you’ve seen one of the filmed versions or a tv series adaptation of the book. Now you have the chance to see a staged version at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre, where the UK tour of this production comes to an end.
The story unfolds on Soldier Island in Devon at a mansion where ten people are invited by a host that is absent. It is just these ten, there is no Poirot or Miss Marple to aid deliberations, and one by one they each meet an appropriate ending – and it continues – and then there were none. It all starts off in traditional Christie style, a strange assortment of characters, with nothing obviously in common, being thrown together in a strange and isolated location. There is no phone, the island can only be reached by boat if the weather is clement, there’s only enough fuel to power the generator for another day. The warnings are there for all to see.
The book and subsequent interpretations are structured around the individuals, their introductions, their backgrounds and their demises. This stage adaptation sets out to do the same, but somehow it misses the target – we don’t really get to know the characters, they are portrayed like cardboard cutouts and fail to build any empathy. In fact it resembled a Village Hall am-dram production, much like something from ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ team, without the slapstick and the humour. There is the stylish ex-soldier, the older judgemental woman, the high court judge, a South African man with a suspect accent, a Harley Street doctor, the secreatry of the absent host, the newly employed housekeeper and her lover cook, a retired general and a reckless young driver, certainly enough for most directors to get their teeth stuck into.
Lucy Bailey’s production does not sit comfortably in the large theatre, it does not suit the play’s claustrophobic atmosphere. Nor had the cast come to terms with the acoustics of the venue. The set doesn’t help proceedings too much – a lot of wafting of transluscent curtains – is it a lounge, is it a deck, is it the grounds, are we inside or are we out? Yes, all of that and all of the time. It is asking the audience to imagine too much. By the interval I had given up caring about any of the individuals and hoped that in the second act we would be saved by some three-dimensional acting, but I was sadly disappointed.
What should have been an amusing and edge-of-the-seat night at the theatre turned out to be a flat retelling of a story about ten characters who were nowhere near as interesting as they should be. By the end of And Then There Were None, I wished I could have been one of them.
