The Mousetrap, the longest running play in Britain, is now at Tacoma Little Theatre.
The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie opened in the West End on November 25, 1952, and it’s STILL running! Yes, this murder mystery has been playing uninterrupted (except for a year of Covid) for over 70 years with almost 30,000 performances! Let that sink in. It’s truly mindboggling. When it originally opened, Agatha Christie predicted it might run for about seven months and put a clause in the show’s contract that a movie version of the play couldn’t be produced until the show had been closed for six months. (Wikipedia)
Christie based her play on her radio play which was based on her story Three Blind Mice.
Before the play opened, she gave the rights to her nine-year-old grandson Matthew Pritchard. She thought the play would run for eight months. It ran for 29 years continuously until Covid hit; and it was dark for about a year. The play earned £3 million by the time Christie died in 1976. Pritchard endowed a Colwinston Charitable trust to support the arts, mostly in Wales.
Enough of history, now back to the play. The set was beautiful: a large room with windows at the back showing the snow falling, falling, falling. The Great Hall was comfortably furnished and even had a fireplace. Mollie and Giles Ralston (Rachel Larkin and Jacob Tice) have just opened their guest house and are anxiously awaiting their first five guests. The Great Hall is empty with the radio continuously playing music and announcing a grisly murder in London. Mollie gets a phone call that a Detective Sergeant Trotter (Shaun Parker) is on his way to investigate a murder on skis because the roads are impassible.
Then the guests begin arriving: Christopher Wren (Joe DeRosier), a nervous and chattering young man, who volunteers to do anything he can to help the Ralstons. Mrs. Boyle (Elizabeth Booth), a querulous woman who complains at every encounter about the lack of a staff and the difference between the post-WWII service she didn’t expect. Major Metcalf (Tim Sherburn) is next, a retired Army officer. Miss Casewell (Jill Heinecke), a prickly young woman is next. Mr. Paravicini (Scott Welborn) is apparently an Italian whose car is stuck in the snow, and was not expected. After lunch, the murders begin.
The rest is the real story. Peg, appropriately confused, wondered until the denouement: who could have been the London murderer? She had to wait until the end to know for sure. Peg and her mother read all the Agatha Christie books, and many others the Tacoma Public Library has. The answer still surprised her.
The Mousetrap has been extended and now runs through November 10. Evening shows are at 7:30pm and Matinee shows are at 2pm. For tickets, call the box office at 253-372-2281.
