The cast of And Then There Were None: Photo © Sean Owens

Sewell Barn Theatre can be relied upon to present shows with considerable panache and skill and the first show under the direction of the new Artistic Director Sabrina Poole continues that honourable tradition. She has picked a challenging work to start with, Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’. The author picked a well known rhyme as the basis for her story, the rhyme is prominently displayed on the set. The rhyme was first popularised with offensive racial stereotypes but is now known as Ten Little Soldier Boys. Each of the ten is killed off, and that is quite simply the basis of the plot here.

I have to confess to struggling with Christie’s writing. She was undoubtedly clever and wove complicated narratives, but I always found her characters rather unconvincing and two dimensional. Musing on this after seeing tonight’s production a clip of Tom and Jerry flashed up on my phone, and gave me a sudden insight into how to interpret this play. If you see Christie’s work as almost a cartoon then just as with Tom and Jerry the excessive violence and rather simple dialogue become merely part of an amusing romp.

Television productions of Christie’s work allows great actors to create much more rounded characters than Christie’s pen ever described. Thing of David Suchet as Poirot, or Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. The strong cast that Sabrina Poole has recruited for this presentation achieve a similar enhancement of the characters to give us an interesting and diverse group of people locked into a deadly isolation on an island with no escape. So we have ten actors depicting eleven characters, as the delivering boatman Narracott soon disappears never to return.

Written originally in 1939 the drama reflects attitudes of the time, so we have a largely male cast. A booming voice from the ether announces to the assembled guests a litany of their murderous crimes, and promises to call them to account. One by one they are dispatched by various means in line with the rhyme on the wall. The deaths are often on stage, not always, and again have an almost cartoonish simplicity to them. Inevitably as the death rate grows the remainers become more suspicious and accusatory with each other. The actors develop their individual characters delightfully but I confess to a little impatience as we got to about number seven on the stiff list.

Overall the production is great fun and is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, with tickets selling out quickly. It bodes well for the continuing success and popularity of Sewell Barn under new guidance and I look forward to my next visit to this delightful and charismatic theatre.

© Julian Swainson
Norwich Eye
17 October 2026

For tickets and more information go to www.sewellbarn.org