Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” is onstage for a final weekend of performances at Fort Myers Theater.
In this dark thriller, 10 strangers are summoned to a cliffside mansion on a remote island. Each has been marked for murder because of something that happened in their past.
The guests include:
- Vera Claythorne (Allison Lund), a resourceful, somewhat unstable young former governess;
- Philip Lombard (Josh Lavy), a mercenary and soldier of fortune;
- Sir Lawrence Wargrave (Peter Fisher), a rigid retired criminal judge;
- Dr. Armstrong (Katlyn Sterchi), a successful Harley Street doctor;
- William Blore (David Pline), a former police inspector turned private investigator;
- Emily Brent (Ariana Milian), an elderly, deeply religious, and strict spinster;
- General John MacKenzie (Wade Harmon), a retired World War I veteran;
- Anthony "Tony" Marston (Bryce Smith), a reckless, wealthy young man;
- Thomas Rogers (Terry Lavy), the efficient butler, and
- Ethel Rogers (Michelle Schoenfeld), the frail, nervous cook and housekeeper.
Fred Narracott (Gavin Ott) is an islander.
As the weather turns foggy and chill and the group is cut off from the mainland, the bloodbath begins. One by one, the guests are murdered in ways that parallel the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme about 10 little soldier boys.
Christie wrote the poem specifically for her 1939 novel:
Ten little Soldier Boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Soldier Boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Soldier Boys travelling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Soldier Boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Soldier Boys playing with a hive;
A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little Soldier Boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Soldier Boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Soldier Boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Soldier Boys sitting in the sun;
One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Soldier Boy left all alone;
He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.
As the body count mounts, the remaining occupants are torn between turning on each other and banding closer together in a vain effort to stay alive.
“Pretty much everybody's a suspect,” noted Pete Fisher, who plays Sir Lawrence Wargrave.
“Yes, we are all suspects,” agreed Lund. “Typical Agatha Christie. Everyone’s both a murder suspect and potentially a murder victim.”
To the left of the audience is a fireplace. Ten ceramic soldiers line the top of its white wooden mantel.
“Each of the soldiers represents a guest who’s been invited to the mansion,” Fisher noted.
As each guest meets their demise, one of the soldiers disappears. As the nexus between their fate and the nursery rhyme becomes ever clearer, the survivors focus on the next line of the nursery rhyme to determine who might be the next victim. But oddly, they never address the elephant in the room, namely, who would have the intellect and motive to use a children’s nursery rhyme to announce who and how the next guest is murdered.
Fisher, in the role of Judge Wargrave, and Allison Lund as governess Vera Claythorne anchor the cast in terms of onstage presence and line load. That’s a coup for Fisher, who is performing in just his second show, having made his debut at Fort Myers Theatre in 7Mary34’s “A Few Good Men,” directed by Trace Talley. The show was also performed at Arts Center Theatre on Marco Island and Punta Gorda’s Heritage Military Museum.
Fisher, who’s an attorney, played a lawyer in “A Few Good Men.” He channels his legal training and experience to play the disgruntled criminal judge in “And Then There Were None.” That’s not to say the role presented no challenges.
“The challenge in playing this character,” Fisher explained, “is not giving away too much too early.”
For that, he relied heavily on the show’s director, Aaron Jackson.
“He's a fantastic director,” said Fisher. “He lets us do our thing. He's creative. He takes ideas from us all the time. He listens. He makes it a collaborative process. He's open to letting us develop these characters as we think we see fit with his direction. But with his background in film, he's looking [at our performances] from a camera perspective. So, there's a lot of non-dialogue acting that he is really great at coaching — where to be, what to do, how to deliver lines that you haven't thought of.”
Lund predicted that audiences will find two aspects of the play unique.
The first is the ending.
“The book was written in 1939 with a specific ending,” Lund observed. “When it was adapted for the stage in 1943 or so, they basically Hollywooded the ending. They wrote a different ending that is very obviously Hollywoody. At some point later, they decided to bring back the original ending, so when we wer given the script, we had two endings to choose from. We are doing the book ending.”
Second, is the way the cast plays their characters.
“The script gives us some flexibility to play the characters in either a more negative or a more positive light,” said Lund. “Most of us are airing on the more positive side, so there's kind of a little more charm to that depth as opposed to a more contentious atmosphere among the people onstage.”
Playing the governess affords Lund with some opportunities not offered by too many of her previous roles.
“There's a lot of emotion I’m called on to portray,” she explained. “There are fight scenes, there are a lot of ups and downs and there are two men who are flirting with me and who I’m flirted back with throughout the play, so there's that dynamic too. There are some really dramatic scenes, so that part of it is both challenging and really fun to play.”
Lund’s previous credits include Mazeppa in “Gypsy,” Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway in “A Few Good Men" for 7Mary 34, Riff Raff in “Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show” for Fort Myers Theatre, Bernadette in “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” for Lab Theater, June in “Chicago” for Gypsy Playhouse, Magenta for Fort Myers Theatre in “The Rocky Horror Show,” both stage manager and ensemble member in “Rent,” Clairee Belcher in “Steel Magnolias” and Jordan Baker in “The Great Gatsby.”
Lund was trained as a dancer and has spent many years producing, directing and writing children’s theater. She directs children’s theater at Fort Myers Theatre. She is co-owner of Camp SSR! and Homeschool Rocks!, teaching and organizing educational programs.
History of the Play
In writing the stage version of one of her most successful and darkest novels during the Second World War, Agatha Christie responded to the mood prevailing in Great Britain at the time by introducing a more positive ending. However, the version onstage at Fort Myers Theatre utilizes the original ending provided by Christie in the novel.
The stage play was first presented at St James’s Theatre in London on Nov. 17, 1943. The play opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on June 27, 1944. The total run on Broadway was 426 performances.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
