The King’s Players put on a show “to die for” featuring Agatha Christie’s murder mystery “And Then There Were None” in the City Room of The King’s College on Friday and Saturday, April 14 and 15.

Directed by Emily Zielinski, a sophomore in the house of Susan B. Anthony, the cast and crew featured members from every house and class year within the two hour play.

With two weekend evening performances, the Players offered school members and outside visitors multiple opportunities to see the murder mystery show that has been in the works since the beginning of the Spring 2023 semester.

Caroline Judd, President of the Players and Assistant Director/Stage Manager for the play, decided to go with a dramatic performance this semester instead of a comedic show like the Players performed in the fall.

“This semester we wanted to work on something a little more serious,” said Judd. “We heard from a lot of people that that was something they would be interested in doing… but it is harder to get people to come to dramas than to comedies so we wanted something with a little name recognition.”

As one of the most well-known murder mystery writers of the 20th century, Agatha Christie’s plays are popular among theater audiences.

“Her writing is very trustworthy,” Judd said. “We liked the content a lot just because it's a murder mystery, but it's fun—if a murder mystery can be fun.”

“The vision I had was to utilize the strength of the cast within their characters,” Zielinski said. “I implemented the directing style of my high school theater mentor… a style of mimicking a professional Broadway production in how it’s run and the level of performance.”

The performance starts with a group of ten characters arriving on “Soldier Island,” a remote island off the coast of 1940s England, at the request of an unknown host known only to the guests as “Owen.”

“All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal and a secret that will seal their fate, for each has been marked for murder,” according to the summary for the official play script. “As the weather turns and the group is cut off from the mainland, the bloodbath begins and one by one they are brutally murdered in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme.”

Ava Marie Van Hala, a freshman in the House of Queen Elizabeth I, enthralled the audience with her portrayal of femme fatale and female lead Vera Claythorne.

“After the show, I told her that she was born an actress and I truly mean it,” said David Rovis, a senior in the House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. “She fully believed her acting and drew the audience into the story with her amazing skill. Her acted emotion seemed so real, it’s crazy! She pulled off the femme fatale so well.”

Colton Taussig, a freshman in the House of Ronald Reagan, delivered a complimentary co-lead performance as adventurer and ex-soldier Captain Philip Lombard.

“[Colton] was one of our students who had never done a play before, or hadn't before last semester,” Judd said. “So that's been really cool to watch, just to see him get more comfortable on stage.”

“I'm not a theater person,” Taussig said. “I was surprised that I was doing theater when I did, but what I've recognized is that this is much more than just a theater organization. It's something like a family. When you see it through that lens, it's hard to not want to join in.”

Carson Clark, a freshman in the House of Reagan, captured the imagination of the audience with his portrayal of the dramatically revealed killer, a homicidal court judge named Sir Lawrence Wargrave.

“It’s a new exercise playing someone villainous and dark,” Clark said. “It’s not something I'd done before, but it encouraged me a lot to know that people had done it before on stages all across the world… People pull off villainy pretty well whether or not that's their true character, so that encouraged me a lot and we made it happen.”

His father, Doug Clark, played the role of Wargrave in his own high school’s production of “And Then There Were None” back in 1982. Carson’s parents traveled to New York City over the weekend to watch their son take on the role.

“I think the show tonight was fantastic,” Doug Clark said. “In a space like this where you can't do scene changes, you have to be all the more creative and use theater of the mind. The director and all the performers did just that, so I think it was amazing. To watch my son perform a role that I performed was this wonderful full circle moment that just brings me great joy.”

The entire play is set in the drawing room of the island’s mansion, with other scenes adjusted to fit the Player’s singular set or portrayed off-stage. Ten little wooden soldiers sat on a hand-constructed mantlepiece at the back of the stage, with one disappearing every time a character was killed off in the show.

“The mantlepiece is a very integral part of the show,” Zielinski said. “With our budget, we found that it was most cost effective to actually build it.”

“Ava, Caroline and I (mostly Ava) built the fireplace for the show,” said Avian Hall, a freshman in the House of Bonhoeffer who played the character of Anthony Marston. “My dad drove us to and from Home Depot on multiple days to help us get the plywood, brick paneling, screws, etc. He also let us store the fireplace in our garage until tech week. Then, instead of us hauling it on the subway, he drove it to campus on a Monday morning and helped bring it in.”

Most students involved in the play began working on it at the beginning of the semester, when the student body was unaware of the school’s financial crisis details.

“Everybody kind of committed to the show before we knew,” Judd said. “We had auditions in the first week of February, and we started rehearsing probably like a week after that… It's been a challenge arranging rehearsal schedules in a way that respects everybody's time when now everyone is applying to colleges and stuff like that.”

The biggest challenge for the Players by far this semester was the new campus closing hours, which were shifted from 10:00 p.m. during all weekdays to 8:00 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays and 9:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“We have people who aren't getting out of class until, depending on the night, 6:00 or 7:30,” Judd said. “If campus is closing at 8:00, that makes things a little more complicated… When class gets out of the city room at 4:20, we're in there at 4:21, setting up and getting ready to go.”

On weekends, the school’s usual closing time of 10:00 p.m. gave the cast and crew a window of opportunity for additional preparation.

“We did do a lot of Friday night rehearsals [and] killed everyone’s social life,” Judd said. “We also ended up using a lot of our Saturday rehearsals. We would just go in for four or five hours on a Saturday and blast through some of it.”

Despite the logistical challenges, members of the Players gave their all to the performance.

“I've loved every moment of it,” said Hall. “The King's Players is a theater environment unlike any other that I've been in. Emily and Caroline are always encouraging yet still push us. They also give us a lot of freedom in how we build our characters and encourage us to dive deeper into how our characters think… Overall everything is very laid back but still always gunning toward our goal of putting on a great show. Also, it is really fun dying on stage.”

“This was the first show I did in over a year,” said Aidan Kurth, a junior in the House of Winston Churchill who played General Mackenzie in the show. “I had felt so out of touch with my art after the hiatus that I wasn’t sure how I would be able to accomplish this role. However, this show has been one of the most healing processes for me. I have been able to get back in touch with my acting abilities. I have made friends that I will always cherish deeply. I have learned just how important acting is in my life and for that I am forever grateful for this experience. It has been the one thing that’s kept me afloat this semester amidst all the challenges and uncertainty.”

Judd said that 82 tickets were pre-sold through an Eventbrite link for the show at $6 each for both evenings. “A lot of people bought for Friday when they actually meant to buy for Saturday, so it's probably going to equal out at 41 each night,” she said. Day-of tickets for the Friday and Saturday shows sold for $8 each.

Anya Hauschnekt, a senior in the House of Queen Elizabeth I, ran front-of-house sales on Friday night and confirmed the purchase of 120 tickets in total over both nights with audiences of about 60 people for each individual performance.

This show was Zielinski’s directorial debut, although she served as Assistant Director for the Player’s Fall 2022 production.

“I just want to say just how proud I am of everybody who was a part of this project,” Zielinski said. “Their hard work and dedication has just made this such an amazing process and has made it a very gratifying directorial debut.”

The show garnered rave reviews from the audience on both nights.

“I loved it! This cast was so talented and the direction was fantastic,” said Moses Kazanjian, a senior in the House of Reagan. “It was great seeing members of every house take part. I'm proud to say our Reagan boys were particularly magnificent.”

“I absolutely loved the show,” said Rovis. “Every time I see TKC Players I am blown away by their talents. I was blown away when I found out after the show that some of these people never really did theater before. They acted like seasoned professionals… I have no clue how the Players managed to put this complex of a production in so little time on top of their intensive coursework. A big bravo to all of them, especially Emily Z, who directed this extremely talented and hardworking bunch!”

Melinda Huspen is the Managing Editor of the Empire State Tribune. She is a junior at The King’s College studying Journalism, Culture and Society.

The King’s Players Pull Off A “Killer” Agatha Christie Performance