Adaptation of Agatha's novel

Contains spoilers, watch with caution

? The drama "No Survivor" is adapted from the novel of the same name by "Queen of Mysteries" Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The novel was written in 1939 and was later adapted into a drama by the author himself. It is also Agatha's most satisfying drama. This performance at the Tianjin Grand Theater will only have two evening performances on September 25th and September 26th.

? The Chinese version of the drama "No Survival" is directed by Lin Yi. Lin Yi is a female director who was born in Shanghai, China in 1982. She graduated from the Shanghai Theater Academy. In 2007, she independently directed Agatha's "No One Survived" and later directed two other Agatha works. The poster for this performance specifically states "the ending version of the novel", which means that there is a process of solving the mystery in the end. It is said that the original version only ended with "no survivors" and did not explain how everyone died, who the murderer was, what the motives were, etc. The foggy ending also caused dissatisfaction among the audience.

? The play is divided into two acts, with a fifteen-minute break in between. The performance lasts about three hours, which is considered a relatively long play. My seat was on the right side of row 17 on the first floor, close to the wall. It was a relatively remote location, but the theater experience was pretty good. There is no obvious obstruction by the stage equipment, but the part of the stairs on the right hand side cannot be seen due to the angle. However, in the scene on the stairs, there are not many body movements, and just listening to the lines does not affect the understanding.

? This drama has 11 actors, each with a role. In addition to the ten leading actors, there are also people who sailed them to the island. In the order of the journey, from left to right are the housekeeper wife Mrs. Rogers who is responsible for cooking, the housekeeper Mr. Rogers, the old girl Miss Brent, the retired soldier Mr. Lombard, and the former tutor now employed as the hostess’ secretary Vera. Miss Claysall, General MacArthur, Dr. Armstrong, Judge Wargrave, Anthony Marston, a second-generation rich man who loves drag racing, and Mr. Blore, a former policeman and now a detective. Compared with the original work, the character image that does not correspond to that of Mr. Blore is that he is described in the original work as "clumsy in size but extremely agile in action". This description is consistent with the fact that in the original work, he is the third to last deceased (the murderer is fifth to last). (this is the third to last position including the murderer), the other two are waiting at the beach, and it is very reasonable to let him return to the villa to get food. However, due to stage restrictions in the play, all murder scenes are set in villas and in verandahs, windows, etc. that are within sight of the audience. External scenes such as the isolated island beach are not shown, so even if Blower's figure is not emphasized, the plot It will not be affected at all.

? I read the original Chinese translation of the book by Xinxing Publishing House. This book is included in the Midnight Library. There is also a handwritten manuscript by Agatha Christie's grandson, which explains the reasons for copyright authorization and Interpretation of Grandma Agatha. A very important point mentioned here is also reflected in the drama.

? "Readers not only appreciate the writer's ingenious ideas, bizarre plots and wise language, but also appreciate the rich British style."

? Although the drama is not like a musical Actors are required to sing, but it is very common to use music as the background. The music in "No One Survived" is very much in the style of British and Irish folk music, with cheerful violins, accordions, and bagpipes that give people a neighing sound. The musical feel in the play is very similar to the tap dance drama "Riverdance".

? The puzzling part of the original work where the detective and the agents went to the island at the end were not shown in the drama. But in fact, the audience was as puzzled as the detective and detectives who saw an isolated island and ten corpses after the incident.

I closed my eyes intermittently, but I still felt terrible. There is also the scene at the end where Vera hangs herself. Originally she thought she had won and survived, but a rope suddenly fell from above in the center of the stage. Then she went crazy and couldn't bear the psychological pressure and hanged herself. Before Judge Valgret came up to reveal the answer to the mystery, the stage lights went dark for a moment, and then when the dim dark blue lights came on again, there was a corpse prop hanging from it, right in the middle of the stage, which was very scary. Although you can tell it's a prop at first glance, it still looks scary. Personally, I feel that this show is not suitable for younger children, as they can be easily frightened. But this also shows the success of the suspenseful and thrilling atmosphere presented on this stage. It can be said that all aspects are in place.

? Another thing I don’t quite understand is that the novel reveals that the order of death on the island was carefully arranged by Judge Wargrave. He arranged the order of murder according to the degree of crime. He decided to let Those with lesser sins die first. Anthony Marston, who was the first to be poisoned, drove a speeding car and killed two children. However, he believed that he was the unlucky one and had no intention of repenting. He finally paid bail and his life was not affected at all by that mistake. . When their previous employer fell ill, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers failed to seek medical treatment in time, which led to the employer's death. However, the two received generous inheritance gifts. The judge believed that the leader of the incident was Mr. Rogers, so he used an overdose of sleeping pills to kill Mrs. Rogers for the second time. After General MacArthur discovered that his most admired subordinate was having an affair with his beloved wife, he sent the young man to fight on the front line, which indirectly led to the death of the adjutant. Miss Brent was pregnant because her maid had an affair with someone. As a Puritan, she did not hesitate to drive the maid out of the house, which eventually led to the maid being desperate and drowning herself in a river. Dr. Armstrong turned out to be a heavy drinker, and once performed an operation while drunk, resulting in the death of a country woman whose condition was not serious. Blore was originally a policeman, but he once again gave false testimony in a case, causing unrelated people to be arrested and sent to prison. In the end, he died in prison due to his physical weakness, but he himself was promoted. Lombard was accused of leading 21 local indigenous people in combat in Africa when he was a captain and was attacked. He ran away, resulting in the death of the indigenous people. When Vera was working as a tutor for a posthumous son named Xivier (changed to "Little Pete" in the play), she believed the words of the child's uncle Hugo, thinking that if the child died, Hugo would inherit his brother's inheritance, and then Marrying herself, she failed to stop her child from swimming to the other side of the sea, causing the child to drown. However, she pretended to save him and was praised for her bravery. In other words, everyone is guilty. The people who went to the island have been controlled by evil thoughts and committed secret crimes. Some people even benefited from such crimes. But if Anthony's crime is said to be the lightest, perhaps from a modern perspective, this is not the case. A traffic accident resulted in the death of two children, but there was no sign of remorse. This sequence is hard to understand.

? When reading the text, one thing that particularly caught my attention is that the name "Soldier Island" has been changed when this work was reprinted many times. In the Chinese version of the version I read, the translation teacher made comments on this point.

"When this book was first published in the UK in 1939, the original text here was Nigger Island, meaning 'Black Island'; in the 1964 British edition, it was Nigger Island was replaced with Indian Island, meaning 'Indian Island'; in the British edition published in 2003, it was changed to Soldier Island, and this edition was translated as 'Soldier Island' accordingly. The same below.

? Regarding the change of the name of the island in different versions, it may have a lot to do with the background of the times.

? I remember watching the movie version of "Murder on the Orient Express" before, which is also a suspenseful mystery story that reveals the complexity of good and evil in human nature. This kind of social suspense writing method can shock and influence non-mystery fans readers and audiences, and ultimately achieve great success. This should be one of the reasons why Agatha's works are still enduring to this day.