And Then There Were None

Past Show

And Then There Were None

BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
DIRECTED BY TRAVIS HANDCOCK

This Agatha Christie masterpiece begins when eight disparate guests arrive at an isolated mansion located on an island off the coast of Devon, and are tended to by two married domestics who have prepared the house for their arrival.

During the first evening a gramophone recording accuses all ten people of past crimes that went unpunished by the law. Soon they start dying one at a time, and the remaining guests deduce that the murderer is one of their own.

The initial stage adaptation’s plot largely followed that of the novel but deviated at the end. Recently, the original ending was released by the Agatha Christie Corporation honoring the book which was brought to the MTC stage.

Cast

Vera Claythorne

Monique Wasa

Monique graduated from Sixteenth Street Actors Studio in 2022 and continued her studies with the completion of the American Way Post Graduate Program. Since graduating Monique was cast in a supporting role in the short film THE JACKET and most recently shot the first episode of a web series, MEGAN AND MIKE. Monique is excited to make her debut performance with the Mordialloc Theatre Company and help bring Agatha Christies work to life!

Mrs Rogers

Kay Morton

Kay’s most recent role was as Elizabeth in CONTINENTAL QUILT with Williamstown Little Theatre. Her other stage appearances include ONE GIANT LEAP and SEVEN DEADLY SINS at Verve Studios. She loves doing improvisation workshops and performances with Impro Melbourne – especially song improv. Kay has had many roles in student films, educational videos, TV commercials and online content. She was Musical Director and co-founder of the a cappella group Rubies in the Kitchen. This is Kay’s first production with Mordialloc Theatre Company.

Fred Narracott

Josh Radford

Josh is delighted to return to the Mordialloc Theatre Company stage. He last performed here in the role of Gus in IT’S ONLY A PLAY in 2023. He had so much fun in his stage debut, he decided to return for more! Josh successfully completed acting courses at the Victorian College of the Arts a number of years ago. Since then, he has been kept busy with his 4 kids, working life and playing the guitar.

General McKenzie

Neil Barnett

Neil is delighted to return to Mordialloc Theatre Company in this, his third, Agatha Christie mystery. Previously having worked behind the scenes on Mordialloc’s DEATH ON THE NILE and appeared as the Major in 1812 Theatre’s THE MOUSETRAP. It’s nice to have earned a promotion to General this time. Although he hasn’t acted at Mordialloc for a while, he has frequently appeared here in one of his favourite roles; working Front of House meeting our patrons.

Mr Rogers

Chris Kirby

Chris has been involved in community theatre for a number of years but this is the first time at Mordialloc. He has worked mainly with Frankston Theatre Group but has also worked with Mornington Players, Adelphi Players, Rosebud Theatre, Beaumaris Theatre and mostly recently LEGENDS OF THE SKIES at Moorabbin Airport museum. Favourite roles have been as the poet Wilfred Owen in NOT ABOUT HEROES with Adelphi Players in 1986/87 and as Brother Jack in DANCING AT LUGHNASA with Frankston in 2006.

Anthony Marston

Rory McGrath

Rory first appeared with Mordialloc Theatre Company in their 2023 production of SUMMER OF THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL as Johnnie Dowd. Other credits include LAST CALL with Darwin Theatre Company, along with multiple short films around Darwin and Melbourne. Rory is a film graduate focusing on writing and directing and is a 2024 scholarship winner in Malvern Theatre Company’s Emerging Leadership Program. He is also a keen photographer and 3D animator for movies.

Phillip Lombard

Brett Whittingham

This is Brett’s first production with Mordialloc Theatre Company. He has performed in over 40 stage productions and tours such as THE LARAMIE PROJECT for which he was a Greenroom Award Winner, STANDING ON CEREMONY and DIRTY DUSTING. Most recently Brett has appeared in ART for 1812 Theatre, FABULOSO for Brighton Theatre Company and DEATHTRAP for Malvern Theatre Company. Brett has appeared in numerous short films and web series including the award winning LAST SEEN ALIVE and his self-produced comedy web-series, PROJECT MANAGEMENT.

Miss Emily Brent

Christine Bridge

A Life Member of Mordialloc Theatre Company, Christine was last on stage here in 2022 playing Emily in LADIES IN RETIREMENT. Since then she has appeared in two pantomimes with Encore Theatre, as the Wicked Witch of the West in THE WITCHES OF OZ and one of the Lost Boys in PETER PAN AND THE PIRATES. Recently she has played Mrs Terence in Peridot Theatre’s NIGHT MUST FALL and Elizabeth Blackwood in FRACKED with Brighton Theatre Company. Tonight Christine is playing a rather different Emily in this Agatha Christie thriller.

Travis Handcock

Director

Travis is excited to be back at Mordialloc Theatre Company, this time sitting in the Director’s chair after treading the boards in OUT OF ORDER in 2019. He has been acting and directing for over fifteen years since completing a Bachelor of Arts in 2007. He has worked at many theatres across Greater Melbourne and has toured in both New South Wales and Singapore. He was recently invited to work with Oscar award-winning writer Rex Pickett in New Zealand on a staged reading of SIDEWAYS (THE MUSICAL). In 2016, he co-founded FizzWack Theatre when the company reprised their VDL-winning production of RUBEN GUTHRIE. His directing credits include THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED), LOVE SONG and TRUE WEST with Mount Players, STONES IN HIS POCKETS with Williamstown Little Theatre, SEMINAR, THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY, AND THE FACULTY ROOM with Essendon Theatre Company as well as being asked to direct a writer-funded production called BREAKAWAY PARTY OF HEAVEN’S TEMPLE written by Melbourne Writer Nicky Lah.

He has recently performed in THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) with FizzWack and Mount Players, SWITZERLAND at Lilydale Athenaeum, DEATHTRAP at Malvern Theatre Company and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS with Wlliamstown. Other acting credits include Beane in LOVE SONG with Mount Players), Hickory-Wood in ONE FOR THE POT Beaumaris Theatre Company and Ruben Guthrie in RUBEN GUTHRIE with FizzWack Theatre. He has also performed the one-man shows MISTERMAN with FizzWack Theatre and 21A which was self-funded and toured around NSW.

Reviews

VDL Performance Review

Reviewed by Andrew McAliece,
7 Mar 2024

I need to confess that no matter how I try I cannot fathom the appeal of Agatha Christie, which is undeniably widespread and enduring. Her characters to me are nothing more than cardboard cut-out stereotypes with all the depth and complexity of a saucer. And they are repeated in most of her stories: the military man, the spinster, the attractive young lady, the dashing young man, the doctor, the adventurer, the policeman, the upper-class sir or lady. And they all say and think exactly, and only, what you would expect them to say and think.

Having said that, Mordialloc theatre Company’s latest offering, ‘And Then There Were None’, was very much enjoyed by the audience when I attended and there was a bum on every seat, which says a great deal about the play and Christie’s popularity.

The play was adapted by Christie from her book of the same name. The original title, when the book was released in 1939, was an extremely un-PC version, which the Americans changed immediately for its release there and which has, fortunately, now been adopted everywhere.

There’s a glaring, truck-size plot chasm (it’s much more than a hole). It’s not giving anything away to reveal that all ten people on the island have each committed, or been responsible for, a murder. How any single person could possibly know this deep dark secret about ten completely disparate individuals, especially given that most of them have never revealed their dastardly act to anyone else, is glossed over. Few people seemed to mind this, apart from me.

I don’t believe dialogue was ever Christie’s strong suit and some of it got a lot of laughs from this modern audience, which I’m sure was not what Christie was aiming for.

Most of the actors, very much looked exactly as you would imagine their character to look, clearly thanks to the director’s astute casting. The cast did as well as one could with the bombastic, dated dialogue, which they almost all imbued with as much realism as was possible.

Neil Barnett played the dementing General very well. Christine Bridge was the prim, judgemental and censorious spinster. She did a very fine job and never let her persona slip in any way.

Tim Byron was the policeman, who started off with a very convincing South African accent, which is a very tricky one to master, and then switched very neatly to a lower class English accent. Top marks. Rob Coulson played the doctor admirably, being both authoritative and anxious.

Stuart Daddo-Langlois apparently had a fifty-year acting hiatus, but you wouldn’t know it. He was eminently believable and pompous as the retired judge. Welcome back to the stage. Chris Kirby as the butler, I felt needed a little more dignified deference in his demeanour.

Rory McGrath’s upper class English accent needed refining and accentuating and perhaps more fluidity in his dialogue. Kay Morton, to be fair, had very little indeed to work with, her dialogue being some of the most banal in the play. But she made as much of it as was possible. She seemed a little stilted in her physicality. More “stage business” to keep her occupied would have perhaps helped.

Josh Radford had a very small role (only his second) as the boat skipper, and we wish him well for his future acting endeavours. Many more roles ahead, fingers crossed.

Monique Wasa gave a sterling performance as the secretary. She had the most of all the cast to work with and was very much up to the task. An impressive performance in every way. Brett Whittingham as the adventurer was very convincingly swaggering yet dashing at the same time. Well done.

Director Travis Handcock, wrangled the large cast of eleven, many of whom were on stage at the same time, very well, managing to draw our attention to where it was needed and away from other spots. Very effective and spooky illumination of the now-dead victims at the end of the play was a master touch. A grandfather clock appears earlier in the same inventive way. He realised extremely clever (yet completely safe for the actor) use of a noose, which very gradually and realistically chokes one of the victims.

The set concept, also by the director, was extremely effective. Concept, I assume, means he came up with the ideas. Then they were translated by Martin Gibbs and Neil Barnett into a design that could be drawn up and then built. Top marks to all three and to the set builders also, too numerous to mention by name. We could believe we were in an upmarket, art-deco mansion, apart from the red curtains framing each doorway which seemed a little out of place.

The very simple backdrop beyond the nicely constructed French doors opening to the terrace was illuminated in many varied colours that very convincingly conveyed the time of day and the weather. That thanks partly to the lighting designer, Julian Camara, who did an overall excellent job, especially in the eerie scene when the actors enter with real candles.

Costumes by Juliet Hayday, were all very good, especially the three piece suits for the older gentlemen, apart perhaps from Miss Claythorne’s opening dress, which seemed a bit modern.

The little “soldier” figurines, crucial to the plot, three of which are smashed during the performance, were all made by Neil Barnett. Top marks for his work, which would have meant making a large number of the intricately painted and detailed “soldiers”. As each victim died, one soldier was removed from the set, very deftly and cleverly. I never saw one being whisked away.

A fine production by a large team of skilled cast and crew.