My ten little soldier boys. You’re the last one. One little soldier boy left all alone. He went & hanged himself. I must have my hanging – my hanging.
Spent a lot of time with this script by virtue of being in a recent staging of the play. I prefer the original novel, which is bleaker and a lot more psychologically complicated. The novel is perhaps Christie’s masterpiece and this play has to change the ending completely in order to create a more upbeat experience. Christie herself changed the ending at least, so it’s not a case of some other writer coming in and butchering the novel. Christie said that a play needed a less morally complicated ending; whether she’s right in the aggregate or not, it works fine here. I’ll always prefer the novel, but this tale of ten strangers marooned on an island and being slowly murdered by an unknown culprit holds up even with a more crowd-pleasing tone. It’s a great show. 4 stars.
tl;dr – adaptation of classic mystery novel doesn’t have the novel’s courage of conviction, but even in a more upbeat version, this iconic mystery story holds up. 4 stars.