“Murderously good.”
After seeing The Mousetrap at The Alexandra Theatre on its 70th anniversary tour, we are sworn to secrecy about the ending. No, we can’t tell you anything about that.
Whilst the London show continues on, this 70th anniversary tour opened at the Theatre Royal Nottingham, where it held its original world premiere in 1952. It is then booked to visit over 70 venues across the country, including all cities to which it originally played 70 years ago, including our very own Birmingham.
What we can tell you is that the story concerns a group of strangers, snowed in at a guesthouse in the countryside….and one of them is a killer! So far, so Agatha Christie. But as she is the mother of any and all whodunnits over the age, that’s absolutely fair enough. She was the first to do this style of story, probably the best to do it and the fact that The Mousetrap has been playing constantly now for 70 years is testament to its longlasting appeal.
The cast includes a few familiar faces. Todd Carty and John Altman, well known as Mark Fowler and Nick Cotton from early Eastenders are amongst the seven strangers at Monkswell Manor, along with Gwyneth Strong who played the long suffering Cassandra from Only Fools and Horses.
The standout amongst the cast is Elliot Clay as Christopher Wren, whose manic energy crackles across the stage. He’s the source of a lot of the laughs heard from the audience and plays his role with unbridled camp joy.
The stage set up is very well done: All of the action takes place in one room, with the cast moving through doors and windows as needed. The room itself is all 50s grandeur, with a roaring fire in the corner and stained glass windows giving you glimpses of the snowstorm raging outside.
A lot of people may think that a whodunnit by Agatha Christie might be a little serious. Not at all. The play and its actors have more than a little tongue-in-cheek in the script and find room for a lot of laughs and humour throughout.
The Mousetrap is a mainstay of British theatre. If you are a theatre fan, you do owe it to yourself to see it at least once. Why not do that at the Alex between now and the 5th November?
Book your tickets here.