And Then There Were None (1943 play)
Encyclopedia
And Then There Were None is a 1943 play
by crime writer Agatha Christie
. The play, like the 1939 book on which it is based
, was originally titled and performed in the UK
as Ten Little Niggers. It was also performed under the name Ten Little Indians.
on which the book was based had an alternative ending of...
...which allowed Christie to portray a different conclusion on stage.
After the play had been written, most people she discussed it with considered it impossible to produce. She received some encouragement from Charles Cochrane but he was unable to find financial backers. Finally, Bertie Mayer who had produced the 1928 play Alibi
agreed to stage it.
After a try-out at the Wimbledon Theatre
starting on September 20, 1943, the play opened in the West End
at the St James's Theatre
on November 17. It gained good reviews and ran for 260 performances until February 24, 1944 when the theatre was bombed. It then transferred to the Cambridge Theatre
opening on February 29 and running at that venue until May 6. It then transferred back to the restored St James' on May 9 and finally closed on July 1.
Although she didn't feel it to be her best play, Christie did declare it was her best piece of "craftsmanship". She also considered it to be the play which formally started her career as a playwright
, despite the success of Black Coffee
in 1930.
. The time - the present.
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
Worst synopsis ever.
reviewed the play in The Observer
s issue of November 21, 1943 when he said, "Miss Agatha Christie does not stint things. Like Hotspur, who could kill six dozen Scots at breakfast, complain of his quiet life, and then ask for work, she is not one to be concerned about a mere singleton corpse. But she can add quality to quantity in her domestic morgue. In Ten Little Niggers she shows an intense ingenuity in adapting that very lethal rhyme (so oddly deemed a nursery matter) to modern conditions." Mr. Brown concluded that Henrietta Watson's portrayal of Emily Brent was, "the most authentic member of a house party with 'no future in it.' as the airmen say. That gently lugubrious phrase certainly does not hold of the play."
Decor by: Clifford Pember
Cast:
William Murray played Rogers
Reginald Barlow played Narracott
Hilda Bruce-Potter played Mrs Rogers
Linden Travers
played Vera Claythorne
Terence de Marney played Philip Lombard
Michael Blake played Anthony Marston
Percy Walsh
played William Blore
Eric Cowley played General MacKenzie
Henrietta Watson played Emily Brent
Allan Jeayes played Sir Lawrence Wargarve
Gwyn Nicholls played Dr Armstrong
opened at the Broadhurst Theatre
under the title Ten Little Indians on June 27, 1944. On January 6, 1945, it transferred to the Plymouth Theatre
where it ran from January 9 until June 30, 1945. The total run on Broadway
was 426 performances.
Cast:
Neil Fitzgerald as Rogers
Georgia Harvey as Mrs. Rogers
Halliwell Hobbes
as Sir Lawrence Wargrave
Nicholas Joy as General MacKenzie
Anthony Kemble Cooper as Anthony Marston
Claudia Morgan
as Vera Claythorne
Patrick O'Connor as Fred Narracott
James Patrick O'Malley as William Blore
Michael Whalen as Philip Lombard
Estelle Winwood
as Emily Brent
Harry Worth as Dr. Armstrong
in 1993 (ISBN 0-39-607631-9) and in the UK by Harper Collins in 1993 (ISBN 0-00-243344-X).
At some point after the end of the Second World War
, a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp
contacted Christie and told her that the inmates had staged their own production there, undoubtedly writing their own script as they would not have had access to the Christie version. Christie was told that they found that it had "sustained them".
In November 2007, Lakota East High School in West Chester, OH
, was set to perform the play but plans were canceled after the NAACP protested about the production because of the original title of the novel.
Lakota East High School officials subsequently revised their plans and decided to perform the play on the 29th November.
and directed by Steven Pimlott
opened at the Gielgud Theatre
in London. For this version, Elyot returned to the book version of story and restored the original ending where both Vera and Lombard die and Wargarve commits suicide. The version of the rhyme and island name used was "Ten Little Soldiers" and "Soldier Island" as per current printings of the novel. Despite very positive reviews, the play closed on January 14, 2006.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by crime writer Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
. The play, like the 1939 book on which it is based
And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 under the title Ten Little Niggers which was changed by Dodd, Mead and Company in January 1940 because of the presence of a racial...
, was originally titled and performed in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as Ten Little Niggers. It was also performed under the name Ten Little Indians.
Background
Christie had been pleased with the book, stating in her autobiography "I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning, and I was pleased with what I made of it." The book was very well received upon publication and soon after Christie received a request from Reginald Simpson to be allowed to dramatize it. Christie refused as she relished the challenge herself although she was intermittently some two years in carrying out the task. She knew the ending would have to be changed as all of the characters die in the book and therefore "I must make two of the characters innocent, to be reunited at the end and come safe out of the ordeal." The original nursery rhymeNursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
on which the book was based had an alternative ending of...
- "He got married and then there were none"
...which allowed Christie to portray a different conclusion on stage.
After the play had been written, most people she discussed it with considered it impossible to produce. She received some encouragement from Charles Cochrane but he was unable to find financial backers. Finally, Bertie Mayer who had produced the 1928 play Alibi
Alibi (play)
Alibi is a 1928 play by Michael Morton based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a novel by British crime writer Agatha Christie.It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End on May 15, 1928, starring Charles Laughton as Hercule Poirot. It was deemed a success and ran for 250...
agreed to stage it.
After a try-out at the Wimbledon Theatre
New Wimbledon Theatre
The New Wimbledon Theatre is situated on The Broadway, Wimbledon, London, in the London Borough of Merton. It is a Grade II listed Edwardian theatre built by the theatre lover and entrepreneur, J B Mullholland. Built on the site of a large house with spacious grounds the theatre was designed by...
starting on September 20, 1943, the play opened in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
at the St James's Theatre
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...
on November 17. It gained good reviews and ran for 260 performances until February 24, 1944 when the theatre was bombed. It then transferred to the Cambridge Theatre
Cambridge Theatre
The Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929-30. It was designed by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie; interior partly by Serge Chermayeff, with interior bronze friezes by sculptor Anthony Gibbons...
opening on February 29 and running at that venue until May 6. It then transferred back to the restored St James' on May 9 and finally closed on July 1.
Although she didn't feel it to be her best play, Christie did declare it was her best piece of "craftsmanship". She also considered it to be the play which formally started her career as a playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, despite the success of Black Coffee
Black Coffee (play)
Black Coffee is a play by the British crime-fiction author Agatha Christie which was produced initially in 1930. The first piece that Christie wrote for the stage, it launched a successful second career for her as a playwright....
in 1930.
Synopsis of Scenes
The scene of the play is the living-room of the house on Indian Island (Note: Nigger Island in the 1943 UK production), off the coast of DevonDevon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. The time - the present.
ACT I
- An evening in August
ACT II
- Scene 1 - The following morning
- Scene 2 - The same day. Afternoon
ACT III
- Scene 1 - The same day. Evening
- Scene 2 - The following morning
Worst synopsis ever.
Reception of London production
Ivor BrownIvor Brown
Ivor John Carnegie Brown was a British journalist and man of letters.-Biography:Born in Penang, Malaya, Brown was the younger of two sons of Dr. William Carnegie Brown, a specialist in tropical diseases, and his wife Jean Carnegie. At an early age he was sent to Britain, where he attended Suffolk...
reviewed the play in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
s issue of November 21, 1943 when he said, "Miss Agatha Christie does not stint things. Like Hotspur, who could kill six dozen Scots at breakfast, complain of his quiet life, and then ask for work, she is not one to be concerned about a mere singleton corpse. But she can add quality to quantity in her domestic morgue. In Ten Little Niggers she shows an intense ingenuity in adapting that very lethal rhyme (so oddly deemed a nursery matter) to modern conditions." Mr. Brown concluded that Henrietta Watson's portrayal of Emily Brent was, "the most authentic member of a house party with 'no future in it.' as the airmen say. That gently lugubrious phrase certainly does not hold of the play."
Credits of London production
Director: Irene HentschelDecor by: Clifford Pember
Cast:
William Murray played Rogers
Reginald Barlow played Narracott
Hilda Bruce-Potter played Mrs Rogers
Linden Travers
Linden Travers
-Life and career:Travers was born Florence Lindon-Travers in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, the daughter of Florence and William Halton Lindon-Travers. She was the elder sister of Bill Travers, and attended La Sagesse. She made her first stage appearance at the Newcastle Playhouse in 1933...
played Vera Claythorne
Terence de Marney played Philip Lombard
Michael Blake played Anthony Marston
Percy Walsh
Percy Walsh
Percy Walsh was a British stage and film actor. His stage work included appearing in the London premieres of R.C.Sherriff's Journey's End and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Appointment with Death .-Partial filmography:*The Diplomatic Lover * Dirty Work * Admirals All...
played William Blore
Eric Cowley played General MacKenzie
Henrietta Watson played Emily Brent
Allan Jeayes played Sir Lawrence Wargarve
Gwyn Nicholls played Dr Armstrong
Broadway production
A production in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
opened at the Broadhurst Theatre
Broadhurst Theatre
The Broadhurst Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 235 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan.It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, a well-known theatre designer who had been working directly with the Shubert brothers; the Broadhurst opened 27 September 1917...
under the title Ten Little Indians on June 27, 1944. On January 6, 1945, it transferred to the Plymouth Theatre
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 236 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan named for Gerald Schoenfeld....
where it ran from January 9 until June 30, 1945. The total run on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
was 426 performances.
Credits of Broadway production
Director: Albert de CourvilleCast:
Neil Fitzgerald as Rogers
Georgia Harvey as Mrs. Rogers
Halliwell Hobbes
Halliwell Hobbes
Halliwell Hobbes was an English actor.-Life:His stage debut was in Sir Frank Benson's company in 1898, playing in Shakespearean rep alongside actors such as Ellen Terry and Mrs Patrick Campbell...
as Sir Lawrence Wargrave
Nicholas Joy as General MacKenzie
Anthony Kemble Cooper as Anthony Marston
Claudia Morgan
Claudia Morgan
Claudia Morgan was an American film, television and radio actress. She was best known for playing the role of Vera Claythorne in the first Broadway production of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians and for her portrayal of Nora Charles on the 1940s radio series, The Adventures of the Thin...
as Vera Claythorne
Patrick O'Connor as Fred Narracott
James Patrick O'Malley as William Blore
Michael Whalen as Philip Lombard
Estelle Winwood
Estelle Winwood
Estelle Winwood was an English stage and film actress who moved to the United States in mid-career and became celebrated for her longevity.-Early life and early career:...
as Emily Brent
Harry Worth as Dr. Armstrong
Publication and further adaptations
The play was first published by Samuel French Ltd as a paperback in 1944. It was first published in hardback in The Mousetrap and Other Plays by Dodd, Mead and CompanyDodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...
in 1993 (ISBN 0-39-607631-9) and in the UK by Harper Collins in 1993 (ISBN 0-00-243344-X).
At some point after the end of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
contacted Christie and told her that the inmates had staged their own production there, undoubtedly writing their own script as they would not have had access to the Christie version. Christie was told that they found that it had "sustained them".
In November 2007, Lakota East High School in West Chester, OH
West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio
West Chester Township, formerly known as Union Township, is a township located in the southeast corner of Butler County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, one of thirteen townships in the county. It is situated between Sharonville and Monroe, about 18 miles north of Cincinnati, and...
, was set to perform the play but plans were canceled after the NAACP protested about the production because of the original title of the novel.
Lakota East High School officials subsequently revised their plans and decided to perform the play on the 29th November.
2005 production
On October 14, 2005 a new version of play, written by Kevin ElyotKevin Elyot
Kevin Elyot is a British playwright and screenwriter. His most notable works include the play My Night with Reg and the film Clapham Junction.-Sources:*-External links:...
and directed by Steven Pimlott
Steven Pimlott
Steven Charles Pimlott OBE was an English opera and theatre director and actor. An obituary in The Times hailed him as "one of the most versatile and inventive theatre directors of his generation"...
opened at the Gielgud Theatre
Gielgud Theatre
The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...
in London. For this version, Elyot returned to the book version of story and restored the original ending where both Vera and Lombard die and Wargarve commits suicide. The version of the rhyme and island name used was "Ten Little Soldiers" and "Soldier Island" as per current printings of the novel. Despite very positive reviews, the play closed on January 14, 2006.