"Ten Little Indians"

Theatre Review
"Ten Little Indians" for Cortland Repertory Theatre
The Ithaca Journal
July 12, 2007
624 words

"'Ten Little Indians' finds strength in anxiety"

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‘Ten Little Indians' finds strength in anxiety
Cortland Repertory Theatre's production a stylish take on Agatha Christie tale
By Mark Tedeschi
Special to Cortland Ticket

Nearly half of Agatha Christie's works have been published under two or more different titles, but none has had an identity crisis quite like her best-selling novel — we in the U.S. know it as “And Then There Were None.” When it was first published, the book was called “Ten Little Niggers”; thankfully, the racial epithet was not an important part of the plot, so it was replaced with a somewhat less aggressive blanket term. Christie believed the dark story needed some cheering up on stage, so the tone of her script for the play differs considerably from that of her novel. Cortland Repertory Theatre's “Ten Little Indians” is a well-cast, light and stylish incarnation of the classic, oft-imitated tale.

In the summer of 1940, 10 seemingly random guests are amassed at a house on an island off the coast of Devon, England, by an unseen host known only as Mr. U.N. Owen. A recorded voice informs them of a trait they have in common: They're all murderers. After the guests start dying per the nursery rhyme “Ten Little Indians,” they realize that someone among them must be responsible for the goings-on.

Tony Capone, a CRT acting vet from “Bye Bye Birdie” in 2002, directs the eclectic, age-appropriate cast. From the outset, we're bombarded with quick-snap character introductions like the buoyant Phillip Lombard (Scott Lee Williams), the take-charge Sir Lawrence Wargrave (Dale J. Young), and the multi-faced William Blore (David Lapkin). The tension doesn't really start percolating until Mr. Owen's butler, Rogers (Tim Mollen) and Mrs. Owen's secretary, Vera Claythorne (Victoria Haynes), admit that they can't confirm whether the Owens even exist.

Standout performances come from Suzan Perry, who channels the bitter-tongue disgruntlement of Judi Dench's angrier roles to play bible-clutching Emily Brent (“Young people nowadays behave in the most disgusting fashion!”), and Robert Finley as General Mackenzie, a cane-wielding golden-ager who lets out a sad monologue about discovering his wife's unfaithfulness.

Often there are six or seven actors on stage at a time, and surprisingly their chemistry is quite good during commotions when several people are moving and speaking at once. There's always a place for them in the lush set, thanks to scenic designer Sarah Martin and always an opportunity for someone to sneak away one of the “Little Indians” that sit on a shelf in the corner and are discreetly subtracted along with their human counterparts.

Jason Read's lighting design deserves applause; the six scenes are set at different parts of the day, and the lighting underscores the mood with clever technique. The electricity seems to flicker just the right amount for eeriness during a thunderstorm, and the beauty of a sunrise radiating from the doors at center stage set the third act with a (false?) sense of contentment.

Christie's script exchanges the novel's gloominess with a lightheartedness that sometimes makes for uncertainty; funny quips (“I think the joys of living on an island are rather overrated”) in the same context as melodrama (“A hypodermic syringe... the modern bee sting!”) feels jarring. The strength of “Indians” still lies in its amplification of anxiety — in the beginning, each character sugarcoats what crime he or she has done only to woefully confesses to wrongdoing later on — but amidst all the joking, the series of twists toward the end border on farcical.

But who am I to pick at Christie's style? Her prolific and hugely successful body of work has made an unmistakable impact in the crime fiction genre. “Indians” would have had an entirely different ambiance if the play ended exactly as the book did (don't worry, that's not giving anything away). Brent reprimands Lombard: “You should be ashamed of yourself for such levity!” Maybe there, Christie was chuckling to herself.

“Ten Little Indians” runs at CRT through July 14. Visit www.cortlandrep.org for more information.

Mark Tedeschi is an Ithaca College graduate.