Sligo’s Ten Little Indians

The Sligo Drama Circle will celebrate their thirtieth anniversary in true style this month with an adventurous birthday production of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians”. Originally staged under the title “Ten Little Niggers”, British Race Relations Laws enforced a name change, and despite the absence of race relations laws in the Republic, Sligo Drama Circle decided to abide by the British ruling. But what’s in a name? In this case it’s certainly the play that matters, and Sligo Drama Circle promise a nail-biting production starring all well-known performers, plus a few surprising new faces!!

Anyone who relishes a good ‘whodunnit’ will know that Agatha Christie’s name is synonymous with detective thrillers, here are the most intriguing, perfectly crafted plays of that genre, tense, mysterious and always crowned by that last minute cliff-hanger, guaranteed to keep the audience tottering nervously on the edge of their seats!! Picture the scenario. The ten persons in the title are, in classic murder mystery style, invited to holiday at the luxurious, but isolated, Indian Island by person or persons unknown. Pretty harmless so far. However, slowly but bloodily, each little visitor is bumped off. Whodunnit? Why? Who will be next to die?? “Ten Little Indians” is a paradise for the amateur criminologist, heaven for the armchair detective. Will you unravel the mystery before the final curtain?

Sligo Drama Circle is the county’s oldest amateur drama society and it has, over the decades, spawned such theatrical luminaries as Paddy Dooney and Maria Mc Dermottroe. Paddy Dooney recently toured with the Druid Theatre Company’s highly acclaimed production of Synge’s “Playboy of the Western World”, he charmed viewers of RTE’s Saturday Live programme when he appeared as a guest of Mick ‘Miley’ Lally in February last. Maria Mc Dermottroe has enjoyed a charmed professional acting career, rarely ‘resting’, she has worked with all the top Irish companies, including the Abbey, and recently captured a starring role in John Huston’s film of the James Joyce short story “The Dead”.

Who knows what will become of talented young members of the current cast in years to come, names like Yvonne Curran, Ruth Marshall, John Kavanagh and Mark Granaghan are as yet little known but, Sligo Drama Circle today, tomorrow Hollywood?? Irene Fleming directs and it opens at the Hawk’s Well on Wednesday May 20th and runs until Sunday 24th.

from The Sligo Champion, May, 1987