And Then There Were None - by Agatha Christie, UK National Tour, 2008

It will have you gripped to your seats and curling your toes in fear... a thrilling ride - I was hooked from the first curtain up until the end. This production is a must.
BBC Radio

The magic of this production will keep you puzzled right to the end.
Bristol Evening Post

Wonderful and macabre.
Yorkshire Post

Harmston’s excellent production creates a terrifying claustrophobia.
South Wales Echo

Joe Harmston certainly delivers the goods and gets the best from his impressive cast... An accomplished - not to say ‘wizard’ - production of a firm favourite.
What’s on Stage

The body-count builds, as does the tension... If atmospheric suspenseful productions such as these get the audience they deserve, they could well use the title at the ticket office as an announcement of maximum ticket sales, ‘And then there were none’.
Theatreworld Internet Magazine

Director Joe Harmston still has the knack of giving Christie mysteries a slightly darker and more stylish twist than usual. A very enjoyable evening’s entertainment
The Scotsman

Eyebrow raising revisionism.
Glasgow Herald

A superb interpretation... a masterpiece of arresting tension which thrills and enthrals as murder unfolds.
Maidenhead Advertiser

Is worth a trip out on a wet and wintry night.
Western Mail

A polished production.
Blackpool Gazette

The Agatha Christie Theatre Company is fast acquiring a reputation for excellence. ATTWN will entertain and involve you.
Surrey Advertiser

Harmston succeeds in making... a case for Christie as a somewhat deeper writer than she is often given credit for.
Birmingham Post

Unmissable for armchair sleuths.
Malvern Gazette

Gloriously gripping.
Bromsgrove Advertiser

THIS PRODUCTION IS PURE PLEASURE FROM FIRST TO LAST. Joe Harmston’s excellent production treats the great Dame Agatha with every bit of respect she deserves. The skill of Harmston’s intelligent production is that it makes a virtue of (the play’s) old-fashionedness, its plumy exclamations of “Wizard!”, its creakiness, to make a disparate group of individuals come alive – so faithfully and authentically done.
The Chichester Observer

Review from the Western Morning News

by Anne Broom

A magnificent Art Deco set, all polished carved wood panelling with French doors set into a huge circular upstage window is the sumptuous setting for this fine production by The Agatha Christie Theatre Company. Director Joe Harmston has assembled an excellent and experienced cast that does full justice to Christie’s Whodunnit, keeping audiences on a knife-edge until the final moments.

Remaining true to Christie’s original idea and using her own adaptation of her book, designer Simon Scullion’s set becomes becomes a claustrophobic prison of their own creation for the disparate group of house guests who arrive on Soldier Island. A disembodied voice encourages them to make personal confessions but ultimately self-preservation makes these seemingly normal people behave like animals, while the 10 figurines set on the mantle shelf above the fireplace mysteriously, and alermingly, continue to diminsih in number.

Set in August 1939, this meticulous production precisely captures the social and political mores of a country on the brink of war. Every character is convincingly a product of its time and no mere stereotype. Lighting and music add to the growing unease as tension increases. As an immensely wary and much-reduced group of guests huddles by candlelight during a stormy night, there are further shocks.

In a strong and convincing cast Gerald Harper’s measured Judge and Jennifer Wilson’s sanctimonious spinster are finely played, whilst Alex Ferns gives a carefully-judged performance as the restless and unpredictable former soldier. The third production from the official Agatha Christie Theatre Company is from first to last an exciting cliff-hanger and the Torquay-born writer’s stories are in safe hands in this their finest production to date.

18 September 2008