Agatha Christie’s classic mystery “And Then There Were None” (also called “Ten Little Indians”), presented by Sleuth and Gothic Productions at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, is not so much a “whodunit” but a “who’s going to get it next?” Perhaps no other play, save for Shakespearean drama, litters the stage with so many corpses and has a right jolly time doing it.

The setting is the remote Indian Island off the coast of England. Eight guests, strangers to one another, arrive the same day, presumably for a holiday at a large manor built by a wealthy eccentric. Each had received a letter from a different person asking them to come.

The manor’s two servants have never met their employer or the host of the strange gathering, Mr. U.N. Owen (“unknown”), who is not present. The house has no phone, and the island has no bridge or boats. The guests are cut off from the world.

They spot a nursery rhyme on a wall about “Ten Little Indians,” and the same number of figurines sit on a shelf. As they wait for the host to appear, the guests are killed off one by one, each in a manner similar to a verse in the rhyme. A figurine disappears for each killing. The tension among the survivors rises as they determine the killer is one of them.

The motive for the slayings is revealed early on. “Mr. Owen” believes each person on the island is guilty of murder, either through a careless act, a willful omission or neglect. The guests will now receive their just punishment— the death penalty.

The play begins at a sluggish pace as the guests arrive on the island and engage in tedious introductions, small talk and drink pouring.

The energy level among the actors is low. But the pace picks up and the suspense builds when the bodies start piling up.

The characters are a colorful lot, very British, very upper class, very clichéd. There are the servants, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers (Brad Weinstein and Jaclyn Miller); the secretary, Vera Claythorne (Kimberly Demmary); the devil-maycare playboy, Philip Lombard (Mark Goles); the young hot rodder, Anthony Marston (James Tobin); the undercover private investigator, William Blore (Jim Seerden); the military man, Gen. MacKenzie (Michael Jordan); the uptight spinster, Emily Brent (Yvonne Golomb); a judge, Sir Lawrence Wargrave (Ronald Rezac); and Dr. Armstrong (Robert Weibezahl), a recovering alcoholic and physician of nervous diseases who grows more anxious as the long night progresses.

Of course, no mystery is complete without a dark night, a thunderstorm and lights that conveniently go out as someone is murdered, but the melodrama serves the story well as the characters— and the audience—try to figure out who will next fall victim to the invisible killer.

The play’s a true ensemble piece, which gives all the actors a chance to shine. Standouts are the boisterous Goles, Golomb as the self-righteous prude blind to her own cruelty, Rezac as the take-charge magistrate and Jordan as the weary soldier who slips into dementia as he waits for his deceased wife to arrive.

Weinstein, Tobin and Miller, onstage for only a short time, are adequate, but they could do more to round out their characters and make their cameos more memorable.

Accents are always an issue when British plays are performed. Most of the actors don’t bother to sound British, which is noticeable at times but not a major drawback.

Sound effects are used well to evoke the coastal setting and the storm. The set is too bare and dull for the house of a rich nutter. A few more chairs would help reduce the clutter of so many actors standing when everyone is onstage.

The real star of the show is the ingenious plot with its twists, surprises and the questions it raises: Did these people actually commit murder, even if they didn’t use a weapon? Is vigilante justice ever morally justified? Is the vigilante as guilty as the killers? The play provides no answers but plenty of chills and thrills.

Running time is two hours, 30 minutes.

The play is presented weekends through June 20. The theater is at 403 W. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. For tickets, call (805) 381-1246 or go to www .HillcrestArts.com.