And Then There Were None (The Novel) by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None (The Novel)

Review of the novel And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

Published by Harper Collins on 6^th November 1939.

Cost: 3’6 1965, £12.99 2015

ISBN 978-0-00-752530-0 (Facsimile Edition - 252 pages)

I recently reviewed the play of the same name, when it was performed by The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, in January 2015

The story was serialised in the UK in twenty-three parts in the Daily Express on 6^th June to 1^st July 1939, but first published as a novel in the UK on 6^th November 1929. Please be aware that this review will contain spoilers for individuals new to the story.

The novel is having a revival in 2015 as it is the 76^th anniversary year for the story. It started with the play being performed in Windsor, Berkshire, UK, in January and going on tour around the UK, finishing in Torquay, Devon, UK, on 20^th September 2015 and will culminate with the BBC showing their own three-part production starting on Boxing day in December 2015. As the novel was being discussed in various circles at The International Agatha Christie Festival in September I felt it was time to revisit the novel and look at how Christie handles the difficult concept of delight of individuals to distraught individuals, as they come to terms with their unusual predicament.

This is an iconic story of a serial killer, picking off individuals one by one while stranded on an isolated island off the coast of Devon in the UK. The story is widely regarded as an Agatha Christie masterpiece. Inspired by an old-fashioned nursery rhyme, it was published two months after the start of WWII. Following the success of the book, it was soon turned into a play by Christie and has had no less than six film and TV adaptations.

At the start of the novel we discover that ten very different individuals have been invited to a luxury hotel, located on an island off the coast of Devon, each receiving a tailor-made invitation that was too good to refuse.

Vera Claythorn recalls:

“I’m frightfully thrilled at the prospect of seeing Soldier Island. There’s been such a lot about it in the papers. Is it really very fascinating?”

Later in her bedroom at the hotel she assesses her surroundings:

Over the mantelpiece of the fireplace was a big square parchment – a poem, in a gleaming chromium frame. She read it. It was the old nursery rhyme that she remembered from her childhood days.

Ten little soldier boys went to dine …

Dr Armstrong is the last of the ten individuals to arrive at the island and on his journey across from the mainland he found time to reflect:

“There was something magical about an island – the mere word suggested fantasy. You lost touch with the world – an island was a world of its own. A world perhaps, from which you might never return.”

In chapter two Christie introduces the guests as individuals, giving some background to the characters as they prepare for dinner and we learn that two of them seem to know of each other, but it is after the meal that the story takes a strange turn. The guests become aware of a small round table situated to one side of the room and on it are placed ten little china figures; they comment that each of their rooms have the nursery rhyme framed, hanging on the wall in the bedrooms...

At twenty minutes past nine a gramophone record plays, not music, but spoken words.‘... there was a silence, a replete silence. Into that silence came The Voice. Without warning, inhuman, penetrating …’

             “Ladies and gentlemen! Silence please!”

Christie’s characters are suddenly startled and the reader can feel a change of tone in the story and notes a disturbing atmosphere within the hotel lounge.

            “You are charged with the following indictments:

“Edward George Armstrong, that you did upon the 14^th day of March 1925, cause the death of Lousia Mary Clees.

“Emily Caroline Brent, that upon the 5^th of November, 1931, you were responsible for the death of Beatrice Taylor.”

Each of the ten individuals is charged with the death of one or more people. Unsettled, the ten individuals protest their innocence, however, after challenging questions from those in the room, they admit their part in the indictments.

Christie now changes the mood of the story and her characters; they have lost the delight at arriving at the luxury hotel and want to leave immediately. The urge to leave is heightened when one of the party is declared dead and they find one of the china figures broken. The remaining individuals become weary of each other and are unsure whether safety lies on being in their own or being part of a group. Over the next one hundred pages Christie kills off her characters, linking the method of murder to a verse of the Ten Little Soldier Boy’s nursery rhyme. All the characters are killed off-stage, she does not describe the gory scenes, leaving that to her reader’s imagination, but it is very clear how each individual has lost their life, ten very different methods.

Agatha Christie has set her reader, and her characters in the story, a puzzle to solve; she is at her best as she takes us along an intriguing tale. Just as her characters search for the murderer, the pace of the tale encourages the reader to race towards the conclusion in an attempt to find out who the murder is, having had to change their own thoughts as they progress through the story. An unsuspecting end to a black story.

Adaptations of this novel to film and plays have taken poetic license to change the ending for their audience. The location has also varied, but it remains a locked room scenario, there is only one possible solution.

This novel is Agatha Christie at her best, an estimate of 100 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide. It is an outstanding novel, and I have enjoyed reading again. A true Agatha Christie 'whodunit'. Rating: 5 stars

Dr James Sheppard

17 December 2015

And Then There Were None (The Play) by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None

Review of the play And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

Performed by the Agatha Christie Theatre Company

Venue: Theatre Royal, Windsor, Berkshire UK

Date: Tuesday 13^th January – First-night performance.

This is one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories, and it is having a strong revival in 2015, Christie’s 125^th year.

The story line is as follows:

“A group of 10 strangers are lured to a remote island off the coast of Devon. Upon arrival it is discovered that their host, an eccentric millionaire, is missing… Stranded on the island by a torrential storm and haunted by an ancient nursery rhyme, one by one the guests begin to die… With only the fallen believed to be innocent who amongst them is the killer.” ©BKL Productions

Until now I had not seen the play performed. It must be difficult to act out a novel where the action takes place in various locations on an island, but on the stage it takes place in one room. Remembering that this was a first-night performance, I anticipated that it was possible for things to go wrong.

The play has three acts, however, Act II and III are split into two scenes. The setting for the play is the living-room of the only house on the island. The walls have a dark panelling, so the audience looks into ‘a brown box’; the rear of the stage has French Doors that are hidden as necessary, (with brown panels, moved by the actors). There are no actual doors to other areas of the house, instead, four arches led off stage, two left and two right.

At the end of each Act and scenes curtains are lowered and house lights switched on, which was confusing for the audience - the first time some got up and started to leave the auditorium thinking it was the interval.

Crucial to the intensity of the play is the rhyme of the Ten Little Soldiers and the accompanying little statues that get broken as each character in the story dies. On the stage the audience is able to observe the ten china soldiers lined up on the mantelpiece above the fireplace on the left of the stage. So, those of us that knew the story were observing any movement of the statues, and in this performance the removal of them could have been better. Emily Brent picked up the first one and declared it broken, but before she picked it up it was in one piece! Two more were removed in between the end of the Act I and start of Act II, unobserved by the audience. A further two were placed under Lombard’s coat as he left the stage, leaving it for someone to say, “Oh look that leaves five”. The final four remained on the mantelpiece for the remainder of the performance. You have got to wonder if there might have been a better way to manage the removal of the statues when one of the characters are killed off.

When I go to see a play at the theatre, I want to be taken to the place of action, but sometimes I’m left disappointed and in this case I was not convinced I was in the home of a millionaire and on an island. The play started well with the guests arriving one by one at the house. The stage is well used with chairs and tables arranged to meet the needs of the actors – drinks, newspaper. At the start of Act II Scene 2, Lombard enters the stage from the French Doors having returned from a walk around the island in the storm, shaking his hat and coat, but his hat and coat was as dry as a bone! What else could go wrong?

In the final moments, there are just two characters alive on the island and Vera takes Lombard to task about his involvement in the death of the guests, snatching his gun and eventually shooting him. However, the sound of the gun was so off stage it lost its effect – a little item that needs to be reviewed!

The big question that all Christie fans want to know, is how did the play end? The ending in the book was altered for the film version, because it was felt that the film going audience would want a pleasant ending, and the stage plays have a choice of which ending to use, in this performance the director has opted to have all the characters die, so the curtain closes with Vera about to do the right thing.

The cast of actors are well known to regular theatre-goers: [Cast of actors: Paul Nicholas, Colin Buchanan, Susan Penhaligon, Mark Curry, Verity Rushworth, Frazer Hinds, Ben Nealon.] The two younger actors playing the parts of Lombard and Vera [Verity, and Ben] presented themselves well, assisted by the costumes used to help develop their character. Most striking was the stunning “1920’s” backless dress worn by Vera. It went so low down her back that you could see her ‘white silk underwear’. Very stunning, but for the wrong reasons; someone must have seen it off stage! Was this the first dress rehearsal?

Finally, when it came to the closing the curtains at the end of the play, the actors took a bow, one by one, and the audience were expected to applaud each individual as they stood up and bowed, and this took simply ages – my hands actually hurt applauding for so long.

As a play I thought it was great, great actors, great entertainment, a must see for Agatha Christie fans. Rating: 5 stars

Dr James Sheppard

3 March 2015