Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap

On Saturday the 24^th of August 2019 I became one of the many thousands to be entrusted the secret of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.

Longest running play

Mousetrap has been the longest running plays in London. The Mousetrap first appeared on stage in London’s west end in 1952, 67 years at the time of writing this blog and it has recently been out on tour. I had the opportunity to see it at the Milton Keynes Theatre and it was very well worth the ticket price.

The plot

The plot of the play revolves around the owners of Monkswood Manor and five guests and an Police Inspector. Monkswood Manor has recently been converted into a guest house by Mollie Ralston and Giles Ralston.

The play is set in 1947 and the atmosphere, dialogue and furniture is based on that period. Some people spoke in Received Pronunciation which means they spoke English without a regional accent or as some people call it BBC English, though it wouldn’t be fair to say that all the cast had to speak like that. There was a couple of exceptions. I was really glad that there wasn’t the temptation to modernise the Mousetrap in anyway.

The first scene

In the first scene there is a radio broadcast of a murder that had taken place in London. There wasn’t a television in sight as they weren’t very common in those days. I really didn’t know what to expect from this play so when the announcer said a murder had taken place I was surprised as my expectation was that a murder would take place on the stage for all to see but that was left to the imagination.

There was a lot of humour throughout the mousetrap, and a lot of wicked characters too. A couple of characters in the mousetrap were obviously there to throw you off the scent as no one would purposely behave in the manner. These characters were there as a decoy to distract the audience from what was really happening in the play. The humour in this play really has lasted the test of time.

Who done it?

So why am I not mentioning very much about the plot, the details and the murderer? Well simply put the mousetrap is a ”who done it” and if I was to say much more than I have already it would no longer be a who done it but a “I know who did it” and to be honest it would spoil your enjoyment.

One of the things I loved about this long running play is how the plot and all the twists and turns has been kept a close secret and one thing I don’t want to do is to break with that tradition, so you will not find any spoilers here. I will tell you just the bare bones of the play and encourage you to see it for yourself. I do have to say that my partner did guess who did it but not until almost the end, my guess throughout the play was wrong.

Was it Enjoyable?

If you enjoy Agatha Christie’s Poirot or Miss Marple then you would enjoy this play. I thoroughly enjoyed the play and the night out as a whole. I would give this play five stars for production, acting, dialogue and enjoyment. If anyone gets the chance to see I would say do it, one thing though don’t say who did it!

Have you ever been to see the play? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Would you be able to keep the secret of the ending or would you be tempted to tell friends and family?