Saturday, December 01, 2007

Unspoken Word Incorrect

We read:

"A widely performed school play has been canceled by Lakota officials after a recent meeting with a local NAACP official. The internationally acclaimed play - Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" - was to be performed by students at Lakota East High School this weekend. But Gary Hines, president of the local NAACP branch, recently complained to Lakota officials that the play, based on Christie's 1939 mystery novel, was inappropriate for a school production.

Hines said the book's original title and cover illustration used for its initial publishing that year in England was a racial slur toward blacks and included a cover illustration of a black person and a hangman's noose. "The original title was 'Ten Little (N - - - - - -),' and it is important to say that because that was the actual title," Hines said Monday.

The title of the international bestseller was widely changed after 1939, and school theater productions in America have performed the murder mystery play as either "Ten Little Indians" or "And Then There Were None" for decades since.

Source

The performance of the play was eventually reinstated. There is a big discussion of the issue here. Apparently there will now be some "correct" additions to the play.