And Then There Were None

Nantwich Players returned to the stage with their gripping production of And Then There Were None. From the offset, the cast were able to effectively build tension and mystery, while still providing some lovely comedic moments. Under the direction of Gail Cornell, the play flowed from start to finish, keeping up a great pace that had the audience captivated. I could hear people chatting in the interval about who they thought “dunnit” and why, the exact impact you want with this genre of play!

The play was entirely set in one room, which allowed for slick changes between scenes and kept the pace of the show going. I loved the attention to detail in the set and all the vibrant colours used. It was a really pleasing picture being shown at all times. What stood out for me were the picture frames around the room, all with caricatures of the characters projected on to them. As the characters fell victim to the murderer amongst them, their portrait was removed. Sometimes this was done within a scene so the audience could see what had happened before the characters knew which was a great touch. There were several moments where the audiences attention was forced towards specific elements through sound and lighting. Each time a picture was about to disappear, we would hear subtle drums played which really helped to build tension.

One of the most impressive elements of this production, for me, was the lighting plot. Perfectly timed for every cue, along with subtle but effective changes, the clever use of lighting really added to the tension built by the cast. Particular highlights for me were the use of low, orange lighting after the lights went out and candles were lit, along with the subtle change to spotlights on each character as they were talking through their personal stories which led them to be in the house. I found the costumes throughout to be perfect for the era and great for establishing the different characters. A lot of thought and attention has gone in to these costumes which must be commended, making the overall picture of the play, along with the bright set, really pop.

Caroline Buckley excelled in the role of Vera Claythorne. She threw herself into the role, portraying a range of authentic emotions throughout. The contrast of her characters demeaner at the start of the show compared to the end was brilliant, moving from “prim and proper” to highly frantic. Her facial expressions were spot on at all times, and the fear she showed towards the end was just outstanding, I was genuinely scared for her! This was an excellent performance from Caroline!

Playing the role of Captain Philip Lombard was Adam Goode who commanded the stage and gave us some highly comical moments. His reactions to the other characters were brilliant, along with his swagger that slowly dissipated as the plot progressed. Jonathan Brett gave a great performance as William Blore, adding comedy in all the right places and a great accent during the first few scenes. His energy was consistently high in his performance and he had the audience in stitches in parts.

Robert Russell took on the role of Doctor Edward Armstrong and added some great physicality. He played the nervousness of the character really well, however a lot of lines were lost due to being stumbled over or slightly mumbled which meant they were hard to understand. Sir Lawrence Wargrave was brought to life by Tony Hoy who had an air of importance throughout, perfectly suited to his character. Unfortunately there were a lot of inconsistencies with the pacing of the performance due to forgotten lines and miss-timed cues from Tony, and I found that it was mostly performed on the same level, in terms of volume and emotion. I would have liked to see a bit more light and dark for the character, especially during the final scenes.

Eileen Heaton gave a lovely performance as Emily Brent, playing a very believable character and forming some genuine relationships with the others throughout. She gave us some stunning moments during the scenes with Emily and Vera, contrasting nicely to when they were in the company of the others.

Ethel Rogers and Thomas Rogers were played by Clare Hoy and Richard Sadler, both of whom built a beautiful relationship between their characters. They both showed a range of emotions within their performances, especially Richard as Thomas after Ethel had died. The pair played really well against each other and the rest of the cast. They had some funny moments between them and were both fully committed to their roles.

Rounding out the cast were Tony Webb as General John MacKenzie, Daniel Chadwick as Fred Narracott and William Hickey as Anthony Marsden. Tony’s performance as John was strong, with full commitment shown to his character throughout. Fred Narracott was performed by Daniel with quite a low level of energy and enthusiasm, this could have been a choice for the character but unfortunately it didn’t quite land for me. William, although having a short amount of stage time, was one of the standout performance of the production for me. He was consistently in character, giving brilliant reactions to the scenes happening around him and absolutely bursting with energy. A great performance from William.

All in all, this was a great production and the cast, production team and tech team should be proud of themselves. Bringing all elements together to create such a tension filled piece of theatre, proved to be effective by the chatter heard from the audience during the interval.

Thank you to Nantwich Players for their invite and I wish them the best of luck with their next production, Bouncers Remix, to be performed in July 2026.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.