This blog post is written on April 17, 2024, and features my memories of The Mousetrap which I saw sometime in the last months of 1974.
Note: All theatre memory posts contain spoilers.
In late July, 1974, I was three months shy of my thirteenth birthday.
My parents and siblings, and I, took a trip to London, England, where we saw the play The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie. It was the first play I ever saw, and it was my introduction to the works of Agatha Christie and the mystery genre in general.
The Mousetrap has always held a special place in my heart. Whenever I went to London – and there was a point in my life where I did that three years running – and whenever there has been a production nearby where I’ve been living in the United States, I would, and still do, go to see it. So I’ve seen it many times. Many, many times.
Theatre
The Ambassador’s Theatre, London, England. The West End. (See the entry on the Ambassador’s in the Theatres section of this website. (TBA.)
The Mousetrap had been running at this theatre since it made its debut in 1952, 21 years earlier. It was the longest running play in the West End when we saw it, and it continues to be the longest running play in the world – it stopped only for the Covid shutdown and continues at the time of this writing (2024.)
One year after we saw it, in 1974, it would move from the Ambassador’s to the adjacent, larger St. Martin’s Theatre, where I would see it again in 1975, but that’s a post for another time.
I don’t remember anything about the theatre except they sold little ice cream cups during intermission which we could eat at our seats.
Plot
It is 1952, 7 years after the end of World War II. In London, there are some footsteps, a shot, a woman’s scream as she dies. The scene shifts to Monkswell Manor, in northern England, where the rest of the action takes place. Molly Ralston has inherited the house from a relative, and she and her husband have turned it into a guest house. Five guests arrive – one of them unexpected – before the house is snowed in by a blizzard. Giles receives a phone call from the police – the London murderer dropped a piece of paper by the body of his victim, on it was the name Monkswell Manor and a bar of music, “Three blind mice.” The police are sending Detective Sergeant Trotter – who because of his skiing skills is able to reach the house.
But even with his presence, the killer strikes again.
The Production
Brian McDermott played Detective Sergeant Trotter, Mark Christon played Christopher Wren. Alan Gerrard played Mr. Paravacini. I must roust out my program to be able to list the rest of the actors in the cast.
Memories
I enjoyed the performances of all the actors – but my favorites were Mark Christon in the showiest part of Christoper Wren, and Brian McDermott as Detective Sergeant Trotter.
As for ‘bloopers’ or adlibs, the only one I’ve always remembered is where Trotter has his skis over one shoulder, and as he turned to address one character he almost hit Mrs. Boyle in the head, she had to duck out of the way. I’ve never been sure if that was supposed to happen or if she’d been a little bit too close to him that time (or vice versa.)