Christie on Stage
And Then There Were None
The novel And Then There Were None was published in 1939 by William Collins. Agatha Christie’s adaptation of this story for the stage established her as a playwright and assured her fame as such. No-one who has read the novel would think, at first glance, it was a likely candidate for adaptation. But the authoress had taken great care in writing the original book and bravely faced the challenge of making it work for the theatre. “It seemed impossible,” she agreed later in her Autobiography. “I would have to alter it to a certain extent. It seemed to me that I could make a perfectly good play of it by one modification of the original story.”
At first several impresarios turned the play down before Bertram Meyer, who had backed Alibi, finally decided to back it. And Then There Were None opened at St James’ Theatre on the 17th November 1943. Christie held her breath for the critics' verdict: The Daily Telegraph led the chorus of approval: “You see what a task Mrs. Christie sets herself. She must play fair because her reputation depends on it. And she must somehow contrive to keep you and me guessing, even when the choice of suspects has been narrowed down. Well she succeeds!”The Times was just as enthusiastic: “This is not a play, it is a kind of theatrical game [...] the stage action she invents is unfailingly ingenious; and she wins her game very comfortably.”