Agatha Christie's 1943 whodunit And Then There Were None is packing them in at Plano's Cox Building Playhouse. Audiences love a well-done mystery and this one, creaky as it is, and so repetitive in its three acts that you might wish the murderer would kill faster, is sufficiently entertaining.
Theatre Britain's been on a comeback streak for about a year. Company founder and director Sue Birch is putting better actors in her shows, which helps when doing an oldie-but-goodie like the Christie play. This show's cast features strong newcomer Travis Cook in the lead as Captain Lombard, one of 10 guests plonked down in a spooky manor off the storm-tossed coast of Devon, England. No host is around, so it's doubly creepy when a recorded voice enumerates the crimes of those present. One by one, they're killed. Poisoned. Stabbed. Offed with a hypodermic needle. Some die onstage; others succumb out of sight. At least one is presumed dead but isn't.
It's a fairly well-paced production and it looks splendid on a set of tastefully upholstered chairs and sofa by Darryl P. Clement. There are more red herrings than in a Columbo marathon, but the right people survive. No spoilers here. That would spoil the fun of guessing.
