BWW Finland Review and Analysis: AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by AGATHA CHRISTIE at Tampere Theatre

Minor spoilers only

Agatha Christie was a genius and it was nothing else but a proper time to celebrate her talent during a dimming, windy Autumn evening. The tickets are quite in demand for this mysterious whodunnit*, which at least held me in its suspenseful grip from the very beginning all the way to the end (*/huːˈdʌnɪt/ a story or play about a murder in which the identity of the murderer is not revealed until the end).

The performance is strong in its entirety. It feels like everything is well rooted together: light design, costume design (though Claythorne's star-glitter bag was quite a miss, unfortunately), actors' work, sound design (though the first background hum could have started straight when Wargrave said "let's sort this out" instead of moments later when Rogers handed the letter to him).

And then there were none is a remarkable performance and I wanted to take some time to analyze why.

Let's go to the very beginning. It starts with a little boy (Kyösti Kiiskilä/Ossi Oijusluoma) who sings aloud the theme poem. His honed accent brought us a proper atmosphere for the story. His movements on the other hand were a little awkward - I would have directed it a little differently; it would have been good for us to just follow his neat recitation.

Spoiler: He is also brought on stage as a little ghost of fate, a symbol of innocency of the murderer so to speak. He also gets to haunt his murderer, miss Claythorne, with his hands through the muddy, seaweedy path all the way to her screech of fear.

The characters' coming onto stage worked very well. It was believable and gave us some time to contemplate these characters beforehand, making assumptions of them. The actors enjoyed being on stage which is not always evident to the viewer. It was a joy to watch their soulful stage-life.

My personal favorites in terms of acting were Pia Piltz as Vera Claythorne: her elegance was on point and her gestures were in a flow. Stanislavski teaches about the flow of the movement through his mercury-excercise in his book an Actor's Work, here's a small brief of it: "Sonova uses visualization to lead Tortsov's class through an exercise in developing fluid, smooth, allusive movement; she puts a pretend drop of mercury on the inside of the fingertip, then guides them in pretending to roll it gently around in different areas of the body, first radial along the arms, then from the top of the head to the feet and back, and all over" (Inouye 2012: Method in Motion: Grounding a Movement Pedagogy in the Lessons of Stanislavski)

It is one of the areas of actor's work I appreciate most: every gesture tells a story and an actor is not gesturing to hide behind them nor to fuss around with them. Arttu Ratinen as William "Davis" Blore had the same quality of work. He had a distinctive, fresh style in his acting. There was certainly something crisp in his attentiveness and most of all in his way of speaking.

Also a huge kudos to Jukka Leisti's (Sir Lawrence Wargrave) brave take on his speech, which was wonderfully placid and contented some, dare I say, British way of rhythming a sentence for example in "the man was • already • dead (mies oli • jo • kuollut.)" Quite a rare style, at least I haven't seen any with as distinctive execution, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Actors talked a little over each other occasionally but in my opinion it just brought that pinch of reality to the performance. Thus I was not too upset about it.

The scenography was beautiful and dynamic, easily manipulated by lighting to form different atmospheres: from lilac and gold of fest to ominous gleams of red and blue.

The defiant dialogue between Emily Brent (Kirsimarja Järvinen) and miss Claythorne was on point. So much fuss on her dress which left her back bare fits perfectly to our current time where a woman's abilities are re-evaluated - by some - when she decides to wear a deep plunge V-neck. #naisvihanäkyväksi #imwithsannamarin

I have only a few observations here in addition to the ones above given in brackets, which I didn't enjoy so much of: some reactions of shock or tears would have been better if given some time because sometimes they came as if out of nowhere. Also there were some problems with the soldier statues themselves as the numbers weren't even to the deaths at times, at least before the intermission there was one extra. But oh was it eerie when they just disappeared!

I'm very fond of my trip to Tampere and can recommend this play to anyone who is ready for a classical murder-mystery (or who wishes to see some Among Us -action live, gee).

Overall And then there were none takes the spectator to the olden times with its fit scenography and costumes. The actors have good chemistry and even though it has a creepy atmosphere as a whole they do enjoy performing it, nevertheless its brutality and horrificness.

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM THE PLAY: HABIT IS SECOND NATURE

Info in Finnish
Suomennos Aino Piirola
Näyttelijät Antti Reini, Elina Rintala, Pia Piltz, Ola Tuominen, Antti Tiensuu, Arttu Ratinen, Matti Hakulinen, Kirsimarja Järvinen, Jukka Leisti, Ville Majamaa, Kyösti Kiiskilä, Ossi Oijusluoma
Ohjaus Anna-Elina Lyytikäinen
Lavastus- ja pukusuunnittelu Mikko Saastamoinen
Valosuunnittelu Raimo Salmi
Äänisuunnittelu Jan-Mikael Träskelin
Videosuunnittelu Petri Kyttälä
Kampausten, maskien ja peruukkien suunnittelu Jonna Lindström
Ohjaajan assistentti Antti Tiensuu

Photos: Harri Hinkka, Tampereen teatteri
Article: Rosanna Liuski @rosannaliuski

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