By John Burland

SIXTY TWO years after The Mousetrap opened in 1952 at the Ambassadors Theatre in London, the public of West Yorkshire got the chance to see this classic Agatha Christie play at The Grand in Leeds.

Originally first performed as a 30 minute radio drama entitled “Three Blind Mice” it was commissioned by the BBC after discussions with King George VI to celebrate the 80th birthday of his mother Queen Mary in May 1952. Agatha Christie then extended this to the two hour stage drama that has now been running continuously for the last sixty years.

Christie is synonymous with her two sleuths of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot but neither of these appears in The Mousetrap, and not even their razor sharp minds, working in tandem, are likely to solve the mystery of why this particular play has had the longevity in the theatre that it has had over the years. It can only be that this is one of the cleverest plot lines that Agatha Christie developed into her many plays and books. She was a prolific writer and she is only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare in terms of literary sales worldwide.

In the play there is a cast of eight characters and each plays their full part in the plot. Giles and Mollie Ralston have just opened their new Guest House, Monkwell Manor situated in the Berkshire countryside, thirty miles from London. They are receiving their first set of guests; Christopher Wren, a highly flamboyant architect, Mrs Boyle, a retired magistrate, Miss Casewell, recently returned to England from Majorca, and Major Metcalf, a retired army commander. Also arriving at the guest house is an uninvited guest Mr Paravicini an Italian whose car has overturned in a snowdrift on the road near to the guest house. And the final character is Detective Sergeant Trotter who comes to investigate a murder that has occurred the same day in Paddington in London but where in a notebook at the scene of the crime the name of Monkswell Manor appears.

At the start of the play there is a broadcast on the radio in the lounge of the guest house, where all the action is set, which announces details of this murder of Mrs Maureen Line in Paddington and says that the police are looking for a person wearing a black overcoat, light scarf and soft trilby hat. In the first five minutes of the play starting, four of the characters, Giles Ralston, Christopher Wren, Major Metcalf and Miss Casewell all arrive at Monkswell Manor wearing items of this particular description and we know from this that there will be the usual Christie twists and turns throughout the rest of the play.

Without giving away too much of the plot, it transpires that Maureen Line was in fact Maureen Stanning who had just been released from prison and who had had connections with Longridge Farm located not far from Monkswell Manor. Here three young children had been ill-treated whilst in foster care with the Stannings (Mr Stanning had died in prison) after their parent’s death some twenty years previously and one of the children had died. The remaining two, a boy and a girl, then were taken into care and their whereabouts became unknown. With the mix of characters at the Guest House, could any one or two of these possibly be these children? This I am not at liberty to reveal. At the end of the play, the audience are asked to keep the secret plot of the play “locked in their hearts” and this is why it would be sacrilege to tell more of the plot or its eventual outcome.

There were excellent performances from all the actors in this production. This classic murder mystery play has an all star cast including: Stephen Yeo as Christopher Wren, Luke Jenkins as Sgt Trotter, Henry Luxemburg as Giles Ralston, Christopher Gilling as Major Metcalf and Helen Clapp as Mollie Ralston. Anne Kavanagh reprises her West End role as Mrs Boyle and Charlotte Latham plays Miss Casewell. It is difficult to single anyone out in particular but I did love Anna Kavanagh as the grumpy Mrs Boyle, picking fault at everything in the Guest House.

This is a great production and a must see for any whodunit fans.