One character even attempts to interpret the line “A red herring swallowed one, and then there were three” as an indication of a fake suicide. A broken Indian statuette signals each killing.Īs usual in Christie mysteries, there are plenty of red herrings, especially in the bang-bang third act. Several deaths occur in full view of the audience, testing the designers’ trickery and spectators’ powers of observation. The first dies after consuming a drink laced with potassium cyanide, fulfilling the prophecy: “Ten little Indian boys going out to dine/ One choked his little self and then there were nine.” Others expire from hypodermic syringe, axe, gun, cliff fall, bronze bear clock. In a country house on an island near the coast of Devon, England, guests are eliminated in a style which approximates that of a queer nursery rhyme. The late Dame was near the top of her game in “Ten Little Indians,” which Allentown College Theatre (ACT I) is staging as part of its annual summer Christie fix. Just think: She paved the way for everything from “Theatre of Blood” (Wronged actor kills critics in Shakespearean fashion) to Neil Simon’s “Murder by Death” to “Friday the 13th.” Agatha Christie, says director Dennis Razze, was the “grandmother” of creative multiple murders in fiction.
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