Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is the longest running stage play ever performed. It's been running for over 50 years and last night I went to, what a board in the foyer announced was, the 20,016th performance of the 'whodunnit' murder mystery that has kept audiences guessing for over half a century.
The play, set post-WWII, opens with Mollie and Giles Ralston who are, what would have been described at the time as, a 'perfectly charming couple' waiting for the arrival of their first guests having decided to turn a mansion they've inherited into a guest house.
One by one, the guests then arrive through a stormy, snowy night.
Christopher Wren is the first to appear. He is known as the "peculiar" young man, which was Christie's very British way of saying he's gay as a string of pink fairy lights. He turns up with very little luggage, a fondness for antique furniture and a love of both cooking and policemen. The actor seemed to play him with some mild form of autism which went a long way towards making some of his more obsessive behaviours seem excusable.
Next is Mrs Boyle, a sour elderly woman who finds fault in everything but herself at all times and talks loudly about "the help".
Major Metcalf arrives, holding Mrs Boyle's bags after the two were forced to share a taxi through the snow from the station. He's a traditional kind, elderly gentleman with an interest in exploring the old mansion he's staying in. He generally keeps himself to himself, but then again, all the characters can be accused of that.
Then we see the arrival of Miss Casewell, a woman wearing trousers who writes letters to a "Jen". She's a radical with a troubled past who has no interest in women's politics so must clearly be a raging lesbian.
Last to arrive is the unexpected Mr Paravicini who has brought absolutely no luggage at all except a small leather bag that can't possibly contain any clothes, having overturned his Rolls Royce in a snow drift. He seems both pleasant and sinister simultaneously, owing to his peculiar sense of humour. The characters refer to him as being "very foreign", as if there are degrees to which a person can be from a different country. This was Christie's traditional way, in many of her novels, to describe someone who has a less-than-Christianly-British way of conducting himself around women.
Not too long into the play, Detective Sergeant Trotter arrives on skis. He announces that the police have been dealing with a murder, at the site of which they found clues suggesting that someone, or rather two people, staying at the mansion's address would be killed before the end of the night.
He questions and interrogates, feeling that every single character is holding information back from him. His job is to figure out which of them is in danger, and which of them is a killer playing a very clever game.
Christie originally thought she'd written a flop, British understatement at is best, I should say.
Although nowadays the characters seem like archetypes and the acting has to be hammed up a little, the whole thing works wonderfully well. Although, at one particular point in the play, the actor playing Mollie decided to make a noise that was meant to be a typical-helpless-gasping-womanly sort of noise, but just ended up sounding like she was having a mild orgasm whilst sat on the sofa having a chat.
This said, the subjects of murder, abuse and mystery are handled very well, and in my opinion, if the actors took the play too seriously then it would lose a lot of its affect upon the audience.
The chatter and excitement can really be felt during the interval, I was quite careful to exit the theatre for the ten minute break as quickly as possible, slightly scared to hear anyone talking who may have seen the play before. Also, I wished to form my own opinions and didn't think I could do that if others had already put ideas in my head.
Even with my speedy escape, I couldn't help but overhear certain conversations and smiled at the fact most of them began with the words "Well, obviously
The marvellous thing, I think, about this play is that it is a typical murder mystery with about eleven other mysteries thrown in, so the thing to debate is not simply who the killer could be but also who these guests are, what are their reasons, if they have any at all, for coming to this place, whythey all seem uneasy at the Sergant's arrival and why none of them want to talk to each other about anything except the weather and the wine [although, this last could be explained purely by the tip-top British vibe the whole play gives off].
At the end of the performance, the leading man puts his hands up, stops the audience mid-applause and says a few words.
"You have now become our partners in crime and, as such, we ask you not to reveal 'whodunnit' when you leave the theatre tonight."
This is a wonderful tradition that, in order for the play to have had as successful a run as it has managed must be upheld so, on that note, I shan't tell you any more, I shall simply say that I can't recommend this play highly enough.
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