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Agatha Christie’s novel and play were both originally published worldwide under the racist title ‘Ten Little N——-‘; the title which this Ballarat National Theatre production used. An alternative title was used for publications in the United States where audiences found the term ’n——‘ too crude, instead using the title ‘Ten Little Indians’ which targeted the racism at Native Americans. Over the years, social consciousness around these terms changed, and so the title of the story became ‘And Then There Were None’.

While BNT has a copy of the program for this production, blocking out the racist language was not enough to enable the program to be digitised and displayed publicly without further perpetuating harm.

The title comes of the story from a children’s rhyme which counts down characters, with each stanza identifying a character’s demise. In the original editions, these characters were referred to in the opening line of each stanza by the racist term ’n——-‘ or ‘injuns’, depending on the edition. The derogatory term does not have any relevance to the plot and its replacement resulted in no change of narrative. In the updated version the racist terms are supplemented with the use of ‘ten little soldier boys’ and the title is taken from the final line of the poem: ‘and then there were none’.

The poem itself is particularly harmful for Black Americans with the final stanza referencing a lone character who hangs himself. This harm is due to the long running violent history of lynching inflicted upon Black Americans, often with a social agreement from perpetrators to publicly state that the victim hanged themselves. This form of violent oppression is still active in the United States, with controversy around a Black student found hanged from a tree in Mississippi in 2025 receiving scrutiny for being a dismissed lynching. The poem in its original form using the term ’n——‘ was included in its entirety in the program for this production and is one of the reasons the program is not publicly displayed on this production listing.

The cover of the program depicts a ‘Jim Crow’ artwork. ‘Jim Crow’ art is anti-black, and depicts Black people with caricatures designed to dehumanise through damaging stereotypes. The term ‘Jim Crow’ comes from a theatre character developed in the 1830s by white entertainer Thomas D. Rice, which evolved from a caricature of black culture into a slur and, eventually, the name for the laws and customs that mandated racial segregation in the American South. The artwork is by American artist William Auerbach-Levy, likely reproduced without license, and is titled ‘The Jazz Singer’. It was originally printed on the back cover of the program for the Warner Bros production of ‘The Jazz Singer’ which is a film about a performer in black face.

Note that the story of 'And Then There Were None' does not include blackface, and this Ballarat National Theatre production of that story does not include it either.

Researchers are welcome to contact Ballarat National Theatre for access to this program for research.