And then there were ...

A year ago, a dead man was on stage almost from the start.

This time around, the characters get picked off one by one. Or do they?

Fort Recovery High School will open its production of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” on Friday night in the elementary/middle school auditeria.

The school has focused on musical comedies — 2020’s musical farce “Lucky Stiff,” for example — since he’s been with the district, said director Reid Knuth. So while Christie’s classic murder mystery has always been one of his favorites, he chose it more in an effort to challenge the FRHS performers with something new.

“I love comedies,” said Knuth, who co-directed last year’s production along with Tracy Evers-Westgerdes. “But I wanted to try to expand their comfort zones as much as I could. And … Agatha Christie writes it so well …”

The production begins with eight strangers arriving at an island, all on a different pretense. They are greeted by the butler and housekeeper and informed that their hosts will arrive the next day. The guests are all expecting a wonderful island getaway, but …

“They discover that everything is not as nice and pretty as it seems,” said Chase Kaiser, who plays adventurer Philip Lombard. “Stuff starts happening between them and you really start to see the creepiness …”

All of the guests have a secret. Eventually, the bodies begin to fall. Those who remain, and the audience, are left to guess at which of them the culprit might be.

Knuth is partial to the show’s bookends — the beginning when everyone is interacting — and then ending after suspense has built toward the big reveal.

“They just sell it really well,” he said of the final scene. “And it’s clear that they’re into it when we get to that point.”

Fort Recovery shows are typically a one-weekend affair, but with the auditeria’s capacity limited because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Knuth doubled the number of performances. Shows will be at 7 p.m. tonight, Saturday, Sunday, Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. There will also be a matinee at 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $6 and are available by contacting the FRHS office.

In addition to adding shows to the schedule, the pandemic impacted the production’s casting. Anticipating the possibility that some performers could be lost because of illness, Knuth doubled up on many of the roles. (It paid off, as a couple of performers were lost from the cast.) While Isaac LeFevre (ex-detective William Blore), Caitlin Weigel (judge Sir Lawrence Wargrave), Makenna Laux (General Mackenzie), Ella Kremer (butler Rogers) and Kaiser will portray their characters in all of the shows, the other six roles are split between two actors. Makena Ellenberger and Alix Englehardt share housekeeper Mrs. Rogers, with Isaac Brockman and Bethany Dues as boatman Fred Narracott, Laura Hipple and Joscie LeFevre as former governess Vera Claythorne, Paul Homan and Olivia Smith as wealthy young man Tony Marston, Megan Knapke and Emma Fullenkamp as religious island owner Emily Brent, and Emily Merrill and Kiana Matsuda as Dr. Edward George Armstrong.

While the cast has faced some issues related to the pandemic, it’s been the weather that has posed a challenge as the show approaches. Tuesday’s rehearsal had to be conducted via Zoom because of the excessive snowfall in the previous 24 hours. And after Wednesday’s short rehearsal, snow again led to school being canceled today.

Knuth said he’s been especially proud of the way his cast members have handled the challenges that have been thrown their way, in terms of the different type of show, the pandemic and the rehearsal schedule.

Weigel said she’s especially enjoyed the shift from creating laughter to building drama and suspense.

“It’s different than what we normally do,” she said. “The genre is definitely just a classic mystery. … When you think mystery, you think Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. … Really from the beginning it’s supposed to just keep you guessing because really everyone there, up until the moment they die, seems like a reasonable candidate for who could be the killer …”