Metro Theatre ratchets up the suspense with And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie’s classic play is one of the legendary writer’s most haunting and sophisticated works
Metro Theatre, And Then There Were None. Photo by Chelsey Stuyt
Metro Theatre presents And Then There Were None from March 1 to 22
AGATHA CHRISTIE IS known as the queen of suspense, and among her most celebrated and chilling mysteries is And Then There Were None.
The story follows 10 strangers who are invited to a lavish estate on a remote island under mysterious pretenses to find themselves trapped as a wicked storm cuts them off from the mainland. Their elusive host accuses each of his guests of murder and proceeds to exact justice. One by one, the number of people left goes down. Tension mounts as the surviving individuals are marked for murder and their darkest secrets are exposed.
And Then There Were None is the next work being performed by Metro Theatre, taking place from March 1 to 22. Directed by Don Briard, the play follows last season’s major success with The Mousetrap, another Christie classic.
Briard explains that as a director, his approach is to create the “illusion of the first time”—to foster in the audience the belief that the play’s words have never been spoken before, all to transport viewers to a world that exists in another place and time.
“I’m always hammering that concept home with the cast, otherwise it can become readings from a phone book; you hear the words and there’s no sense of ownership on the part of the person speaking,” Briard says in a phone interview. “The challenge that it [And Then There Were None] presented is a lot of people know the story. Can we present it in a way that it feels real enough that they forget that they know it?
“There’s a reference to a red herring in connection with one of the deaths,” he continues. “What we hope to be able to do is introduce our own set of red herrings that have people saying, ‘Oh, well so-and-so was by the bar when the drink got poisoned; maybe so-and-so is the killer.’ And have it so they can be suspicious of other people and maybe be thinking, ‘Maybe I don’t remember it as well as I thought.’ Our challenge is to present it in a way that people will say, ‘In watching it, I forgot I knew who the killer was.’”
Don Briard.
As one of Christie’s most haunting and sophisticated works, And Then There Were None transcends time, with universal themes of guilt, justice, and morality that are just as relevant today as when the play debuted in 1943.
Those who have read the book or are otherwise familiar with the story may be in for a surprise; in 2015, Christie’s estate commissioned an alternative ending for the play, and it remains to be seen which one Metro Theatre is going with. “There’s a twist we can give the audience,” Briard says. “‘You think you know how this ends? Think again.’ We want the audience to go on the ride with the characters.”
Briard has decades of experience in theatre; his first time on-stage was in 1963 when he was a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. He went on to earn an MFA in Theatre from UBC. Over the last couple of years, in addition to Metro, he has worked as a director and an actor with community theatres in North Vancouver, Deep Cove, and White Rock. He says he looks at theatre as the ultimate team sport.
“If somebody is not pulling their weight, it affects everyone,” Briard says. “If you’ve got somebody who’s really awful, you’re in trouble.
“My approach to directing is a very kind of collegial one,” he adds. “I’m not somebody who can do the puppet master. Once a show is cast, I tell the cast that my work is 60 or 70 percent done. My job is to get the right people. If I have the right people in the right roles, we’re home free. If I make a mistake in the casting, we’re all screwed. I think for And Then There Were None we have a great cast. And most of them have English accents.” 
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