Agatha Christie
And Then There Were None
Theatre Royal Brighton
Mon 13 – Sat 18 July 2015
Eves 7.45pm
Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm
Review
What a feast! What a brilliant show! When a great cast is assembled a great writer’s play is turned into magic. And this is what happened at Theatre Royal Brighton last night. It was absolutely exquisite!
This was murder mystery at its very best with the audience being kept on the edge of their seats until the very last second with a fabulously dramatic finale.
And Then There Were None
In three parts with a 15 minute interval and a shorter grab a quick drink one, the time simply shot by as the tension mounted.
Ben Nealon as Philip Lombard was particularly convincing. Both Mark Curry as Doctor Armstrong and Paul Nicholas as Sir Lawrence Wargrave gave sterling performances.
Susan Penhaligon’s part of Emily Brent was very dated belonging to long gone Victorian times, but she played it well and didn’t overshadow Verity Rushworth’s Vera Claythorne who was such entertainment and she really came into her own in the last two acts.
The stage was particularly well designed as a 1920’s house on an island a mile off the Devon coast. A group has gathered and a storm is brewing…………
Original Preview
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie’s most popular and best selling thriller AND THEN THERE WERE NONE,visits Theatre Royal Brighton for a week long run from Mon 13 – Sat 18 July 2015
West End and TV star PAUL NICHOLAS(Jesus Christ Superstar,Cats,Just Good Friends) will play judge Sir Lawrence Wargrave. He will be joined by COLIN BUCHANAN(Dalziel and Pascoe,Dangerous Corner) who will take on the role of retired police inspector William Henry Blore with SUSAN PENHALIGON(Bouquet of Barbed Wire,A Fine Romance), as eccentric spinster Emily Brent,MARK CURRY(Blue Peter,The Woman in Black,Charley’s Aunt)as Dr Armstrong,VERITY RUSHWORTH(Emmerdale) as Vera Claythorne,FRAZER HINES(Doctor Who,Emmerdale) as Rogers and BEN NEALON(Soldier Soldier,Doctors) as Philip Lombard.
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE is the world’s best-selling mystery ever, with 100 million sales to date. Widely considered to be Christie’s masterpiece, her own stage adaptation of this dark and captivating tale will thrill and enthral, as murder unfolds…
A group of 10 strangers is lured to a remote island off the coast of Devon. Upon arrival it is discovered that their host, an eccentric millionaire, is missing. At dinner a recorded message is played accusing each of them in turn of having a guilty secret and by the end of the evening the 10 guests become nine. Stranded on the island by a torrential storm and haunted by an ancient nursery rhyme, one by one the guests begin to die. And with only the fallen believed to be innocent who amongst them is the killer?
Paul Nicholas is best known as Vince Pinner in the 80s BBC sitcom Just Good Friends and other series, but his biggest success has been his musical theatre career. He first made his name in the original London production ofJesus Christ Superstar, in which he played the title role. He also starred in Hair where he worked with Elaine Paige and the pair went on to play Danny and Sandy in the West End production of Grease, the first British couple to do so. In 1997, he teamed up with Bill Kenwright to co-produce a new musical based on Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities, in which he starred as Sidney Carton. In recent years he produced and directed a UK tour of Keeler, based on the Profumo Affair and in February 2013 starred in Dear World at the Charing Cross Theatre.
Colin Buchanan, best known for playing D.I Pascoe for eleven years in the hit BBC television series Dalziel and Pascoe, joins the cast off the back of starring in a UK tour of another Bill Kenwright production, J.B Priestley’s Dangerous Corner.
Susan Penhaligon is probably best known for starring in the 1976 ITV drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire and for playing Judi Dench’s sister in the 1981 LWT sitcom A Fine Romance. Her West End theatre credits includeThe Three Sisters(AlberyTheatre);Of Mice and Men(Mermaid);The Maintenance Man(Comedy Theatre);Mr Love(Comedy Theatre);The Real Thing(Strand Theatre) andDangerous Corner(Whitehall Theatre). She has also appeared on TV many times in dramas such as Upstairs Downstairs,Tales of the Unexpected,Bergerac,Casualty and A Touch of Frost.
Mark Curry is best known to children of the eighties as one of the Blue Peter presenters as well as hosting Get Set for Summer,The Saturday Picture Show and Screen Test. His acting credits include Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone,London’s Burning, and West End shows The Woman in Black,Talent and he toured with Noises Off and Singin’ in the Rain.
Verity Rushworth is best known for her role as Donna Windsor-Dingle in the long-running ITV soap Emmerdale which she landed in 1998 when she was just 12 years old. After ten years in the role, her final scenes were aired in January 2009. The next month she made her West End debut in the musical Hairspray in the role of Penny Pingleton which she played until March 2010. In January 2011, she played Maria Von Trapp in the UK tour ofThe Sound of Music, taking over the role from Connie Fisher. In January 2014, she announced she would be returning to Emmerdale to reprise her role of Donna Windsor-Dingle and returned on screen in March. She stayed for five months before departing in August.
Frazer Hines is well known to Doctor Who fans for his role as Jamie McCrimmon, companion to the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. But his biggest TV role was as Joe Sugden in ITV soap Emmerdale which he played for 22 years from the pilot episode in 1972. Frazer’s theatre experience includes starring roles inOutside Edge,Dial ‘M’ for Murder,Spider’s Web,Not Now Darling,Doctor in the House, opposite BillKenwright,Run for your Wife,Wait Until DarkandFar From the Madding Crowd.He has also appeared in repertory at the Grand Theatre, Swansea, playing Doctor Prentice inWhat the Butler Saw.
Ben Nealon is best known for his role as 2nd Lt/Lt/Capt Jeremy Forsythe in the ITV award-winning series Soldier Soldier. His previous work for BillKenwrightincludesThe Signal Man(Windsor) and thePassport for Pimlicotour. His TV credits includeCasualty,The Bill,EastEndersandDoctors, and film roles include the Bollywood blockbustersThe Risingand the Oscar-nominatedLagaan.
As THE AGATHA CHRISTIE THEATRE COMPANY marks its 10th anniversary with this production of And Then There Were None, the interest and adoration for the great Dame Christie – who having sold over two billion books worldwide is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare – continues to grow.
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