Chris Eldon Lee reviews “The Mousetrap” which is at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Sat 1st June 2013, and Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn in June 2014.
“The Mousetrap” made it’s West End debut the week I was born….and we’re both still going! So it was a delight to tick it off my bucket list at the beginning of it Diamond Jubilee tour.
The mystery of “The Mousetrap” is not so much ‘who-dun-it as ‘why-is-it-still-here’?
Whilst it’s a thoroughly enjoyable and enthralling brainteaser, it doesn’t exactly stand out from the rest of Agatha Christie’s remarkable crime canon. As the Dame said herself, “It’s not really frightening. It’s not really horrible. It’s not really a farce. But is has a little bit of all these things and perhaps that satisfies a lot of different people”.
Well, it’s satisfied millions of people actually; including me!
Devised as a brief BBC entertainment for the birthday of The Queen’s grandmother, Christie worked it up into a full length play 60 years ago and The Mousetrap has been springing surprises ever since. Like so many celebrities, it’s famous simply for being famous. And, in this case, justly so. Seeing this play is like entering the theatre’s equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb and finding the gold within still shining.
It’s a dark and stormy night in the Home Counties; the worst snowstorm for decades.
So it’s not a good weekend for recently married Mollie and Giles to open up their new B&B. Nevertheless, all the guests make it though the blizzards, clutching their impeccable references. (Good guesthouses insisted on credentials in those days). As the curtain rises, a London murder is already being reported. And, in a jokey sending up of Christie’s own genre, the radio description of the wanted villain matches most of the arriving guests.
There is much meat amongst the suspense and playfulness as the classic slightly over the top characters reveal damaged childhoods and tragic teen years; a pirouetting architect, a river dancing foreigner and the worst hotel guest in the world, all with secrets to keep. At first they all revel in assassinating each others character….till someone takes the next inevitable step.
There are plenty of clues and red herrings, not to mention the occasional unintentional mystery. If the sinister stranger has taken the last room, where is the skiing sergeant going to sleep?
I’d like to say more, but of course I can’t. The legend is true. A cast member does indeed step out of the curtain call to implore the audience not to tell. In this modern day of twitter and spoilers it’s a remarkably well-kept secret and long may it remain so. If you’ve ever videoed a football match you’ll know how infuriating it is to be told the score. And the same applies to The Mousetrap.
As it happens, I correctly wrote down the culprit’s name during the interval – but there are so many twists and turns in the story I spent much of the second half wanting to revise my prediction. You may like to go and see it equipped with pencil and rubber.
Visit www.grandtheatre.info for bookings & information about Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre
Visit www.theatresevern.co.uk for bookings & information about Theatre Severn