‘20 Little Indians’ hit local stages

Tom Titus

There is, as they say, a first time for everything.

In nearly four decades of chronicling the local theater scene,

I’ve often encountered the same play being presented by two or more

different theater groups during the same season.

Once, a few years ago, I sat through three productions of “Steel

Magnolias” in a six-week period (one I was obliged to review, the

other two, outside the paper’s coverage area, featured a good friend

and a good daughter in the respective casts, also demanding my

attention.)

Never, however, in my experience has there been an occasion to

review the same play opening the same weekend at two different local

theaters.

That’s what’s on tap this weekend with what I like to refer to as

“20 Little Indians.”

Both the Huntington Beach Playhouse and the Costa Mesa Civic

Playhouse decided that Agatha Christie’s 1940s-era mystery thriller

“Ten Little Indians” would be an ideal play to present over the

Halloween period. Neither, of course, consulted the other; why would

they?

The result is that the Huntington Beach version has its grand

opening tonight, and I’ll be viewing it for the Huntington Beach

Independent. Costa Mesa’s will be Saturday, and will be reviewed in

the Independent’s sister paper, the Daily Pilot, next week. As

General Custer once said, “Where did all those bleeping Indians come

from?”

Actually, there are no native Americans in Christie’s whodunit.

The title comes from a musical ditty, much like her play “The

Mousetrap” found its titular reference in the song “Three Blind

Mice.”

The plot is a familiar one, lampooned on both stage and screen in

recent years (“Murder by Death,” “Something’s Afoot,” etc.). Ten

people, strangers to one another, are invited to spend an evening on

a fog-shrouded island cut off from civilization, and one by one, they

start expiring.

Who’ll be the last one standing? Well, for that answer, you’ll

have to see the show -- either in Costa Mesa or Huntington Beach.

Jack Messenger, who’s directing the local version, naturally hopes

you’ll check out the Huntington Beach Playhouse.

“I’m excited to do this piece because it’s been considered a

classic Agatha Christie ‘whodunit’ since the beginning of time, it

seems,” Messenger commented. “ Outside of ‘The Mousetrap,’ which is

the longest-running play in the history of London’s West End theater

district, ‘Ten Little Indians’ is considered her penultimate work.”

Messenger is all too aware of the problems presented by an

American cast attempting English accepts. Which is why he’s changing

the location of the play from Devon, England, to an island off the

coast of British Columbia.

“This way, I can still keep the ‘British’ flavor of the show

without having the audience strain to the distraction of ‘faux’

British accents.

“Canadians, as we know, still belong to the dominion and still are

very British in their attitudes and language usage,” said Messenger,

who lived in Canada for a good part of his life. “By setting the

locale to coastal British Columbia, I can get the actors to ‘relax’

with a normal accent.”

As for the time period, Messenger is keeping the play in its

original late ‘30s-early ‘40s atmosphere with ominous lighting to add

richness to the story. The walls of the drawing room setting will be

painted “blood red.”

“We hope to have as full a sound production as possible, replete

with the appropriate boat horns, seagulls, wind and rain, etc.,”

Messenger said. “Additionally, I’m a big believer in music as

‘dressing’ to a show. I want to fill the audience’s ears [and thus,

their perceptions] with music that will build the requisite tension

and sense of foreboding atmosphere.”

Messenger is aware that his “10 Little Indians” isn’t the only one

hitting the boards this weekend.

“I hope it just builds more interest for both shows,” he said. “We

could use as much support and interest in local theater as we can

get.”

“10 Little Indians” opens Friday for three weekends at the

playhouse’s Library Theater in the city’s Central Library complex,

7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach. Tickets may be reserved by

calling the box office at (714) 375-0696.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.