Based on the best-selling crime novel of all time, director Lucy Bailey, brings the queen of crime Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None to the stage. Bailey has a profitable observe file with Christie diversifications, with Witness For the Prosecution now in its sixth 12 months in London.
The creepy traditional basically gathers ten disparate strangers to a lonely mansion on an island off the coast of Devon. With the host lacking and a storm that cuts them off from the mainland, one after the other the explanations for his or her presence on the island are revealed.
Atmosphere is every part within the telling of this story and designer Mike Britton efficiently creates a creeping gloom. That mentioned, and as stunning because it all appears to be like, the restricted palette of black, muted turquoise and rust brown does start to bore after some time. Massively profitable although are the flashback scenes, a WW1 battlefield is cleverly realised and significantly spectacular.
With pre-show drama that noticed an indisposed main girl being changed not by her understudy however by one other member of forged an hour earlier than curtain up, curiosity was definitely peaked. Script in hand, Nicola May-Taylor delivers a superb efficiency as Vera Claythorne, as do the whole ensemble, completely encapsulating the stereotypical, inter-war, class obsessed characters.
Any points with the manufacturing lie with its nearly languid tempo. In order to ascertain everybody’s backstory, there may be loads of exposition, making it sluggish to heat. There’s little urgency all through and at nearly two and a half hours and it wants some adjustments in tone or tempo to maintain the curiosity. That mentioned, there’s a weird, red-lit, drunken celebration scene that’s jarringly incongruous.
Despite any minor faults, it is a class act, with a finely tuned forged, performed out on a fantastic set, it respects and honours the Queen of Crime’s traditional. Ultimately entertaining.
Runs till 30 September 2023
Image:Manuel Harlan
