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Concert Listings: June 16 to 22

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Friends of the Osterhout Free Library Book Sale opens today in Wilkes-Barre

HAZLETON &#8212; Oh, how delightful the sea air is. How charming are the cries of the gulls.That&#8217;s the happy attitude Jessica Schafer, of Lehighton, expresses in her role as a young secretary named Vera Claythorne who has just arrived on an island for what she expects will be an enjoyable weekend.Playing the part of housekeeper Mrs. Rogers, Dawn Korus Winarski, of Newport Township, calculates how many loaves of bread and pints of milk she&#8217;ll need to feed a group of guests. What could be more commonplace and natural? Certainly nothing scary is about to happen. Or is it?Not too long after 10 assorted guests and servants assemble on the island, things start to go wrong.One by one, each is found dead &#8212; killed in strange ways that eerily echo an old nursery rhyme &#8212; until, as the title of this Agatha Christie work suggests, &#8220;And Then There Were None.&#8221;The Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts is staging the play, which is set in the time period between World War I and World War II, from June 16 to June 25 at the Ferrara Center on Broad Street, where the cast recently talked about their characters during a rehearsal break.&#8220;The thing about them,&#8221; cast member Paul Winarski said, &#8220;is they&#8217;re entirely respected in their own little worlds.&#8221;So, for all we know, Winarski&#8217;s character, Sir Justice Lawrence John Wargrave, has been an upstanding man of law.Retired Gen. John Gordon Mackenzie, played by John Sherrick, of Nanticoke, has the thanks of a grateful nation for his military service.Even Mrs. Rogers and her husband are perfectly dependable servants, aren&#8217;t they?As for Emily Brandt, played by Peterlyn Wezt, of Edwardsville, she is a Bible-reading, church-going woman of high morals. Isn&#8217;t she?Actually, Wezt said, Miss Brandt is one of the characters audiences will heartily dislike, right from the start.&#8220;I direct her to be that way,&#8221; director Adam Randis said. &#8220;She shows no remorse.&#8221;It&#8217;s not common knowledge, but Miss Brandt once took in and reared a young girl, only to throw her out when she became pregnant out of wedlock. Seeing no alternative, the girl committed suicide &#8212; and maybe Miss Brandt should feel bad about that.Each of the characters has a similar secret sin. &#8220;They are clearly flawed,&#8221; Randis said, adding this is one of the best examples of Agatha Christie&#8217;s writing.&#8220;It&#8217;s so well sketched out. It&#8217;s a very suspenseful, psychological drama,&#8221; he said.&#8220;You don&#8217;t have Miss Marple there representing good. You don&#8217;t have Poirot there figuring it out,&#8221; he said, naming two well-known Christie detectives who appear in other stories. &#8220;There&#8217;s more depth to it, more shades of gray.&#8221;&#8220;And Then There Were None&#8221; has several versions, and Randis doesn&#8217;t want to reveal which one audiences can expect in the PTPA production.But, he said, you&#8217;re welcome to know that Christie was the first author to place a small group of people into &#8220;the claustrophobic environment&#8221; of being stuck on an island where they will face comeuppance for their misdeeds.And in that, she has been much imitated.Her premise has been parodied by &#8220;Star Trek&#8221; and &#8220;Family Guy,&#8221; Randis said, as well as the movie spoof &#8220;Murder By Death.&#8221;&#8220;Even &#8216;Alien&#8217; has that premise,&#8221; Paul Winarski added.<ins>For other Life Section stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/features" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts rehearses a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie&#8217;s &#8216;And Then There Were None.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_therewere-none.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts rehearses a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie&#8217;s &#8216;And Then There Were None.&#8217; </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Mary Therese Biebelmbiebel@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>IF YOU GOWhat: &#8216;And Then There Were None&#8217;Who: Presented by Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing ArtsWhere: Ferrara Center, 212 West Broad St., HazletonWhen: 7 p.m. June 16, 17, 23 and 24 and at 3 p.m. June 18 and 25Tickets: $20, $18 and $10 for show only; $35, $30 and $20 for show and dinnerReservations: 570-454-5451</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</shirttailMeta></div>

PTPA presents Agatha Christie play ‘And Then There Were None’ in Hazleton