For three nights this past week, student theater group Masque and Gown attracted full houses and long wait-lists with its first fall production, a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mystery, And Then There Were None.
The novel, first published in 1939, chronicles the adventures of 10 people who are all lured for different reasons by a Mr. and Mrs. Owens to an island off the English coast. The guests soon realize the Owens do not exist, and worse, that they are part of someone’s strange plan to murder them one after another.
Christie’s thriller explores deeper meaning of justice in society and highlights the effects of guilt on one’s conscience. The psychological jargon of how different personalities react to guilt provides the backdrop for the play.
Student director Sabine Carrell ’13 remembers watching the thriller, and being captivated by the plot’s eerie horror, for the first time when she was 10 years old at her high school. The play left such an impression on her that she was unable to sleep for the rest of the week (she admits she continues to fear sleeping with her back to the room). Read the full story by Sophia Cheng ’15.