The Show Must Not Go On?

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Despite the fact that hundreds of performances of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians" take place throughout the United States each year, the stage at Lakota East High School in Ohio will be dark this weekend. And no, it is not because of a stage crew labor strike, it is because of what the original title of the book was called in England in 1939. Gary Hines, president of a local NAACP chapter, recently complained to Lakota officials that the play, which is based on Christie’s 1939 mystery novel, was inappropriate for a school production, stating the fact that the play was based on a novel that originally used a racial slur in its title. This title was only used for the original publication in England in 1939. The title of the international best-seller was widely changed after the first publication and school theatre productions in America have performed the murder mystery play as either “Ten Little Indians” or “And Then There Were None” for decades since. Do you think this is a way of promoting racial harmony or censorship?