The Mousetrap...
So last evening it was my turn to experience the legend it has become in theatrical history. Written by Agatha Christie it has been performed in London's West End for sixty years. I can't say too much about it as that would spoil the pact between the audience and the actors that we must "Keep the secret"
It is obviously one of Christie's first murder mysteries and it shows(in hindsight)a lot of weaknesses that don't add up. I did guess who the the murderer was but not some of the extra information that followed the disclosure.
I have a feeling this plot was extended and improved upon in another story as she became more experienced in writing.
Keeping the secret does mean I cannot say too much at all except the plot involves a newly married couple who decide to run a guest house in the country and the plot revolves around them and their guests. As it is Winter they are cut off soon after the guests arrive due to snow. It does have some stereotypical characters who were probably used a lot in plays and books written at the time.
It was well acted by a cast that are well known to anyone who follow the soaps on tv and the long running BBC radio series The Archers.
The tour(the first of this production)continues around the UK and across the World(I understand it is or has been)touring Australia.
If you get the chance I still think it is worth seeing. It is the first play I have seen on stage in around thirty years.
It is obviously one of Christie's first murder mysteries and it shows(in hindsight)a lot of weaknesses that don't add up. I did guess who the the murderer was but not some of the extra information that followed the disclosure.
I have a feeling this plot was extended and improved upon in another story as she became more experienced in writing.
Keeping the secret does mean I cannot say too much at all except the plot involves a newly married couple who decide to run a guest house in the country and the plot revolves around them and their guests. As it is Winter they are cut off soon after the guests arrive due to snow. It does have some stereotypical characters who were probably used a lot in plays and books written at the time.
It was well acted by a cast that are well known to anyone who follow the soaps on tv and the long running BBC radio series The Archers.
The tour(the first of this production)continues around the UK and across the World(I understand it is or has been)touring Australia.
If you get the chance I still think it is worth seeing. It is the first play I have seen on stage in around thirty years.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 1:25 pm
2 Comments:
I remember seeing The Mousetrap at a London Theatre more than fifty years ago and I didn'tmanage to work out who did it.
Christie wrote it in the 1940s and it was based on an actual murder which took place in 1945.
Originally, the play was called Three Blind Mice.
I love the fact that you are getting out and about and sharing it with us.
I don't like being critical VQ as it was really a good night. That is interesting the background you've added.
Amazing to think you were there at the start of its run(kind of)and here am I so far into its historic place in theatre.
I'd love to say more. I had to do a double take with Karl Howman forgetting we are all older and his appearence is so different to when he played in the comedy Brush Strokes and the radio series King Street Junior on Radio 4.
He played Mr Paravavincini, a foreign visitor in The Mousetrap. I knew Graham Seed(Nigel in The Archers)and someone from Coronation St. everyone else was new to me.
Playing to an audience is a different skill to a tv camera or radio mike.
I wondered if they would be miked up. Being Saturday night they did well to ignore police/ambulance sirens leaking into the theatre.
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