Agatha Christie fans will be entertained by The Bump In Theatre Company production of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE at the Zenith Theatre at Chatswood.
Set in a house on an island off the Devon coast, eight guests receive vague invitations to the isolated house and after arriving are accused by an unseen voice of causing the deaths of various people.
In apparent retribution the guests and the staff, a butler and a housekeeper that make up the ten of the title, start to be murdered, one by one. Tension increases as the reducing number of suspects realise that one of them is the murderer. The second half of the play is more frenetic and there are touches of humour and melodrama that are woven into the narrative.
The director, Adrian Barnes, has caught a lot of the style of the era with exaggerated delivery of dialogue reminiscent of plays & movies of between the wars England. The set design complements the space and with the background sound of the sea creates the feeling of a luxury villa by the sea. The actors capture enough of the English accents to convince the audience we are watching events in 1930s England.
Sandy Velini, as Miss Emily Brent, a Christian tee-totaller who dislikes young people, gives a captivating and stern performance. Shannon Ashlyn, Mrs Owen’s young secretary, gives a wide ranging performance, starting flirtatiously but she soon displays fear and despair as an atmosphere of terror descends on the luxury villa. Christopher Sellers, as the dashing young Captain and romantic interest, has fun entertaining the audience in one of the play’s major roles.
For the many fans of English detective dramas such as MIDSOMER MURDERS, MISS MARPLE, HETTY WAINTHROP and BERGERAC, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE will be an entertaining evening at the theatre.
The cast is Ali Aitken, Shannon Ashlyn, Peter Bishop, Anthony Campanella, James Collette, Andrew Flanagan, Errol Henderson, Bec Martin, Tim Page, Christopher Sellers, Peter Talmacs & Sandy Velini.
Adrian Barnes’s production of Agathie Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE opened at the Zenith theatre, corner McIntosh and Railway streets, Chatswood on Thursday 20th October and plays until Saturday 29th October, 2011.
© Mark Pigott
27th October, 2011
Tags: AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, Agathie Christie, Bump In Theatre Company, Zenith theatre, Chatswood, Ali Aitken, Shannon Ashlyn, Peter Bishop, Anthony Campanella, James Collette, Andrew Flanagan, Errol Henderson, Bec Martin,Tim Page, Christopher Sellers, Peter Talmacs, Sandy Velini.