Hajefa Khanam’s take on Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery And Then There Were None for this year’s OUDS BAME showcase was entertaining, suspenseful and very much worth your attention.
This was the first time I’ve walked into the Pilch to a silent audience. Although the house lights were on, Vivi Li’s and Emma Parker’s Mr. and Mrs. Rogers – the house staff – walked about the living room cleaning and rearranging everything. As they did so they held what seemed to be an improvised dialogue. Their squibbling and complaining – successful largely due to the chemistry between the two actors – was a small but effective touch that seemed to immediately demand that the audience pay careful attention to what was about to unfold.
Set entirely in one location, the show felt progressively claustrophobic, particularly through Khanam’s effective directing. There was a lot of movement at the beginning of the show, with characters constantly exiting and entering – the stage felt almost like a train station. The dialogue was quick-fire, with little time to breathe. However, by the end of the performance the emptiness of the space and physical distance between the actors made us feel the absence of the dead more strongly and the tension more vividly. Although there were less bodies in the room, the feeling of being trapped was no less powerful. After the interval, multiple audience members were quite literally on the edge of their seats. This was intensified by Cayden Ong and Michelle Tse’s simple but effective lighting design; by the show’s second half the survivors sit – all suspicious of each other – with their faces lit only by lantern and candle light. Their fear was palpable.
The cast were all convincing in their roles. Chelsea Iwunze was particularly memorable as Emily Brent, giving the character such distinct mannerisms that she was always a delight to watch. Ali Khan also gave a standout performance as Sir Lawrence Wargrave, commanding the stage whenever he was on it. Grace Yu as Philip Lombard was charismatic and clearly an audience favourite, while Kapil Narain’s Henry Bore stole many a laugh. Eunbi Han who had the challenge of playing Dr. Armstrong – a very conflicted character – did so with grace, rendering her sympathetic. Finally, Lara Ibrahim gave a subtle and contained performance as Vera Claythorn, which prevented certain scenes from veering into melodrama.
Aesthetically, the play was very well put together. Vanessa Chan’s careful costume design not only immersed us in the 1930s, but established a gloomy colour palette which enhanced the eeriness of the situation. The set was also cleverly arranged. The Pilch chairs’ inclusion in the living room setting, in pushing the proximity between performer and audience even further, made us feel somewhat implicated in the stage’s events – especially when Claythorn asked Lombard if he did not feel like someone was watching them. The famous little toy soldiers that are surreptitiously removed as characters die kept the audience constantly looking back towards the cabinet and counting in an attempt to anticipate the next death. Mark Tan’s fantastic poster design also deserved a special mention.
Tone is perhaps And Then There Were None’s main issue. While the humour worked very well at the beginning of the show – Lombard and Bore in particular were good comic relief – the darkness of the ending was marred by genuine laughter from the audience. This was largely a consequence of the humour being played too comfortably into the second half of the show, which features much more graphically disturbing content and dampens the impact of certain scenes.
Overall, And Then There Were None is a highly entertaining piece of drama, which did justice to the queen of the murder mystery. A second watch is definitely merited for those wanting to put together the clues themselves.
