The Mousetrap (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Archive: This review was first published on March 26, 2013 by the Daily Post

Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is the longest running stage play in the world, and this year marks its 60th birthday by going on tour around the UK for the first time ever.

It's a very traditional play, a typical Christie plot and set-up. Giles and Mollie Ralston (Bruno Langley and Jemma Walker) are a young couple who decide to open their own guest house, despite not being well experienced in the role. Monkswell Manor is a fusty old house with wood panelling and back stairs and all those trappings that make for a good old whodunnit.

Various guests start to arrive as the snow falls heavily outside, eventually cutting them off from the outside world.

But following a telephone call from the police, it soon becomes clear there is a murderer on the loose, and it is thought the killer is heading to the guest house to carry out their twisted Three Blind Mice death spree.

The cast fill their roles well, the highlights being Steven France's irksome but ultimately lovable outsider Christopher Wren, and Elizabeth Power's domineering old bat Mrs Boyle. Some of the performers are stronger than others, but all of them give a good account of themselves with conviction and professionalism. There are some classy actors here - Karl Howman, Bob Saul, Clare Wilkie, Graham Seed - who bring much-needed three-dimensionality to their parts.

Of course, with every whodunnit, there's a murder, but it would be unfair of me to reveal which character gets bumped off, and which way the plot goes in the second half. But it's safe for me to say that very little is what it seems on face value.

There are twists, but probably few you can't see coming or work out for yourself a few paces ahead of the characters on stage. I think that is the beauty of Christie's work - she creates a perfectly intricate web of intrigue, but nothing too complicated to make you feel you can't work it out. She was an expert at pulling plot strands together gradually and naturally, and The Mousetrap - while not modern or fast-paced - is a prime example of why Agatha Christie is the finest crime writer ever to set foot on planet Earth, and why I firmly believe this play will still be performed in another 60 years time.

The stats

Writer: Agatha Christie

Director: Ian Watt-Smith

Cast: Steven France (Christopher Wren); Karl Howman (Mr Paravicini); Bruno Langley (Giles Ralston); Elizabeth Power (Mrs Boyle); Bob Saul (Detective Sergeant Trotter); Graham Seed (Major Metcalf); Jemma Walker (Mollie Ralston); Clare Wilkie (Miss Casewell)

Performed at Venue Cymru, Llandudno, March 25 to 30, 2013 (as part of The Mousetrap's diamond anniversary tour). Performance reviewed: March 25, 2013.

Links

The Mousetrap on Venue Cymru website (retrieved Jan 14 2015)

The Mousetrap on Tour website (retrieved Jan 14 2015)

The Mousetrap on Wikipedia (retrieved Jan 14 2015)

Behind the scenes video of the West End production of The Mousetrap - dated March 2013 (retrieved Jan 14 2015)