Their characters onstage were strangers to each other. But for the audience, watching Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s new production of the Agatha Christie mystery “And Then There Were None” was like a family reunion.
Cast members Mark Corkins, Matt Daniels, Todd Denning, Armando Gutierrez, Steven Koehler, Max Pink and Sarah Suzuki have all been in Rep shows before. James Carrington and Marcella Kearns are familiar and welcome faces to people who attend Wisconsin theater.
Laura Braza directed this team of hometown heroes and a few actors new to Milwaukee in an entertaining staging of the Christie chestnut. If you’re among the many who discovered this traditional style of mystery via the “Knives Out” movies or Next Act Theatre’s recent production of “The Mousetrap,” you’ll likely enjoy “And Then There Were None.”
Vaguely worded invitations draw eight people to an island home off the English coast, where they meet a pair of recently hired servants, played by Daniels and Kearns. (By my count, it’s at least the seventh different show now for Daniels as a valet, steward or some other kind of dignified, well-dressed hired help.)
They soon realize they’re marooned there, and that someone among them is bumping them off one at a time via clever variations on a rhyme. It’s a Christie story, so naturally there’s poison. But she’s also devised some other fiendishly creative exits. (While murder and suicide are discussed, there’s no gore in this staging.)
Sir Lawrence Wargrave (Koehler), a retired judge, takes charge of their ad hoc investigation in a gently Socratic way. Vera Claythorne (Suzuki) is often the emotional center, with several men jockeying first for her attention and then for her support.
I’m not going to spoil this plot-driven show for you. If you’ve read the 1939 Christie novel that she adapted this play from, the shape is similar but some particulars are different.
Managing 11 people onstage is not easy, and Christie isn’t famous for depth of characterization. But Braza and the cast differentiate everyone. Daniels and Kearns’ battling servants provide some comic relief, as does Carrington, playing the medical nervous disorder specialist who is plenty nervous himself. Koehler is highly watchable as Wargrave (often flinging my mind back to Christopher Plummer’s character in “Knives Out”).
Suzuki’s appealing Vera is a character the audience is bound to root for.
An eventful year for Milwaukee Repertory Theater
This production of “And Then There Were None” closes an eventful and remarkable season for Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
In October it unveiled the remodeled and upgraded Checota Powerhouse Theater, the centerpiece of an $80.1 million fundraising campaign so successful it funded several stretch goals.
Then on Dec. 14 it closed a record-breaking run of “Come From Away,” the first musical in the new Checota theater. With more than $1.61 million in ticket sales, “Come From Away” is the highest grossing production in Rep history.
It reached those milestones despite flooding in August that destroyed the Rep’s “A Christmas Carol” sets and other materials, a painful and expensive disruption. The Rep rebounded seamlessly from that setback, rebuilding the sets to the same specifications.
In February the Rep launched its renovated and upgraded Herro-Franke Studio Theater, the flexible venue where it performs some of its most experimental or daring works. The world-premiere production of Ayad Akhtar’s “McNeal” and then Vanessa Severo’s one-performer show “Frida…A Self Portrait” successively broke sales records for the studio space, though the Rep did not reveal specific sales figures for those productions.
The Rep is also celebrating receipt of multiple awards and honors for the Associated Bank Theater Center building and renovation project, including a Mayor’s Design Award and the ASID Wisconsin Interior Design Project of the Year.
If you go
Milwaukee Repertory Theater performs “And Then There Were None” through June 28 at the Checota Powerhouse Theater, 108 E. Wells St. Visit milwaukeerep.com or call (414) 224-9490. Milwaukee Rep recommends this show for people 12 years and older.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rep’s ‘And Then There Were None’ is a classic Christie whodunit
Reporting by Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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