Beginning the weekend with the premiere of another Agatha Christie classic, running on weekends till September 1st at T2F was a refreshing welcome. The consistency with which the theatre and art scene in Karachi is evolving without choking commercialisation is the much-needed change we were all waiting for. A simple setup with key focus on characters rather than set design, the play opens with sound changes made to the original script. This is an Agatha Christie classic we are talking about, the kind that has made stage and TV adaptations around the globe, and yet when it came to the City of Lights, producer Sarah Saifi of Drama Queen Productions edited the script to equate gender equality, in her words, “to take the play with us to the 21st century. Despite the size of the Farrar Hall and the jam packed house, it was a brilliant execution with the costumes and the setup keeping the true essence of the story set in 40s alive. I did wonder if the play could’ve done well on a theatre stage considering the size of the actors, a total 10 with enough action. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned how it would be executed given the large audience. The play opens with 10 strangers checking into a mansion by invitation on an island only to be deserted and sharing company with a murderer. All their darks secrets are played on record over dinner by a stranger and soon enough, bodies start dropping dead. Every character was immersed in their role, without stressing excessively on mimicking the foreign accent of the script, perfect articulation and fluid body language did justice to the adaptation. The tension of a killer on a murder spree lingers in the air and is translated well by the characters. Many times the petite area for performance did feel like a hindrance, limiting walking space for the actors but show directors Arman Tejani and Ahmed Majeed Agloria seemed to have pulled it off without allowing it to become a major drawback. •