Customer Reviews

The Mousetrap

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The play 'The Mousetrap' revolves around a couple who set up a guesthouse for the first time and find that their visitors are not what they seem - that every visitor seems to have some connection to the couple, expected or unexpected. This is not made known until much later when a ski-happy policeman Trotter arrives on the scene, and starts connecting the Monkswell manor (the house) to a violent death scene in Paddington a few hours ago, where a notebook was left behind at the crime scene with the words 'Monkswell Manor' written on it. Trotter then gets everyone hyped up over this murderer's identity. This play is good because it showed that everyone could be a suspect, and that element of scariness cannot be missed in this very exciting play, a play that delves back into the histories of its characters. Suspense abounds as the murderer's identity is slowly revealed. A great book - not to be missed.

The guests of a newly opened bed and breakfast, Monkswell Manor, outside of London, are snowed in. The news on the radio tells of a murder that occurred in Paddington, a few hours away. A notebook dropped on the scene leads investigators to Monkswell Manor. All of the people in the house fit the profile of the murderer, a traveler wearing a dark coat and a beret. Mollie and Giles, the manor's owners, experience marriage turbulence as they begin to suspect each other. An older woman is disturbed by a young man who finds the murder humorous. The inn's occupants become very nervous when Inspector Trotter, a ski-happy investigator, arrives at the abode threatening to unveil the secrets that each character is holding. The investigator suggests that everyone there is not only a suspect but also a possible next victim by presenting evidence of a "Three Blind Mice" theme the murderer has been using. Whose secrets will be unveiled and whose will be silenced for eternity?

Who would have ever guessed Christie can do plays to outshine her books? "The Mousetrap" excellently portrays its characters in a concise, yet thorough manner. Christie's dry,English wit is as humorous today as it was in the '40s. Mollie and Giles are a young couple who have just started to run a bed and breakfast called Monkswell Manor. Great character development (as usual with Christie) takes place as guest after quirky guest arrives on-scene to stay at the Manor. Things start to move quickly when Trotter, an odd and fierce police sergeant, arrives on the scene to investigate Monskwell Manor and it's inhabitants in conjunction with a murder that just occured that very same day. "Three Blind Mice" is the murderer's theme, Trotter tells them, and one person has already been killed, leaving (insert suspenseful gasp here) 2 people for the murderer to do away with.The victms? Yet to be determined. The killer? At Monkswell Manor, unbeknownst. The play itself? Screaming fun.

Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) originally dazzled readers with a series of mystery novels and short stories. Several of these were adapted to the stage. Disliking the results, Christie decided to try her own hand, and during the 1940s and 1950s she created one roaring success after another. Three are particularly famous: TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1944), WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1953)--and the single longest running play in theatrical history, THE MOUSETRAP (1952.)

The play began life as a half-hour radio drama, THREE BLIND MICE, created by Christie on the occasion of Queen Mary's 80th birthday. Christie had a gift for recycling her own material, and in 1948 she recast the play as a long short story under the same title, and then again as a two-act mystery for the stage in 1952. It has played continuously on the London stage without break ever since. At present, it has played more than 25,000 performances and shows no sign of decreasing in popularity, as much a London landmark as Buckingham Palace and the Tower.

Giles and Mollie Ralston are recently married and have decided to try their hand at running a guest house, only to find themselves trapped in an unexpected blizzard with five somewhat questionable guests: a neurotic young man; a dour and endlessly complaining widow; a stereotypical retired British major; and a tough-cookie spinster--not to mention a peculiar Italian who claims his car overturned in a snow drift down the road. No sooner is everyone settled, however, than they receive a call from the police. A woman has been murdered in London and the police have tracked the killer to the guest house, where they believe a second will follow. The situation is so urgent that a police detective is dispatched on skis. But even with a detective on property, murder strikes--and a third murder seems inevitable.

Most critics feel that WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION is Christie's masterpiece as a dramatist; it has dramatic depth and sweep, not to mention a triple-twist conclusion that lifts audiences from their seats in the final moments of the play. Even so, THE MOUSETRAP is perhaps more what people expect when they think of "the classic English murder mystery." The general premise of a handful of people isolated from the world and required to ferret out a killer on their own is very, very much Agatha Christie, and both characters and setting are distinctly English as well. As is often the case with Christie, the story is also laced with a certain light humor to leven the plot. When the play suddenly gathers to its conclusion no one will be disappointed: Christie presents a solution that audiences have found satisfying for over fifty years.

Like many of Christie's plays, THE MOUSETRAP never had a significant professional run in the United States, and there you are more likely to find it in the hands of a community theatre than in a professional production. Which is a pity. But whatever the case, it is a joy to read, well constructed, with characters and dialogue and plot deftly drawn. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Script ordered was in excellent condition. It took approximately 4 weeks

from order to delivery. Allow time for it being sent from England.

We had seen heard so much about this broadway show that my husband wanted to read the book before attending the show. It was helpful for him.

Orginal title 'Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.' Features Hecule Poirot and my favorite, Miss Marple, along with Harley Quin. 9 short stories, one just as thrilling as the next. Titles:
Three Blind Mice, Strange Jest, Tape-Measure Murder, The Case of the Perfect Maid, The Case of teh Caretaker, The Third-Floor Flat, The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly, Four and Twenty Blackbirds and The Love Detectives.

Another Agatha Christie, what can I say... If you like all the others you'll like this.

Try a real book sometime. There are plenty on amazon. You could try Our Mutual Friend by C Dickens.