The Mousetrap Tickets:5 recommendations
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Agatha Christie thriller, te world’s longest running stage play
About The Mousetrap
Going to see The Mousetrap can often be found high on a tourist’s to-do list, as its astonishing fifty-seven year run has made it one of London theatre’s most important institutions.
The Mousetrap started life as a half hour long radio play commissioned in 1947 in honour of the eightieth birthday of Queen Mary. Loosely based upon the true story of Dennis O’Neill, a Welsh boy who died at the hands of his foster parents in 1945, Christie’s play Three Blind Mice made a short tour of Britain in 1952 before settling at the Ambassadors Theatre. The play then had to change its name due to another show called Three Blind Mice having been staged in London only a few years before, and Christie’s son-in-law provided the name The Mousetrap.
The Mousetrap is the classic whodunit, with eight eccentric characters snowed in at a remote guesthouse, where only the murder victim is above suspicion, and at the end of each performance, the audience are sworn to secrecy. This tradition has for years been the butt of jokes (Paul Merton once revealed the outcome at the end of a television show), but there is no denying it has kept people coming as it will undoubtedly continue to do.
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Reviews
The Mousetrap
Those familiar with the Christie canon will find it easy to spot the murderer among this roll-call but this is not the only point of seeing the production. This is a beautifully preserved example of a country house murder mystery, a throwback to theatregoing in the thirties (minus the matinee tea-trays). And should a disgruntled cab-driver tell you whodunit there are several other moments of suspense and surprise in store to keep you guessing.
