The Mousetrap - Garrick

‘The Mousetrap’ is the famous thriller by playwright Agatha Christie. It had its origins in a tragic, 1945 real-life case concerning the death of Dennis O’Neill, a young boy who died whilst in the foster care of a Shropshire farmer and his wife.

This production by the Garrick Theatre Club is presented at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. Performances are at 8.00 pm nightly at the ends of the week, until the 2^nd December. The Sunday matinees on 27^th November and 4^th December are at 2.00 pm.

‘The Mousetrap’ had its world premiere at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham in 1952 under the directorship of Peter Cotes (an older brother of cinema’s Boulting Brothers), before touring the major cities of England. It then started its present run in the ‘New Ambassadors Theatre’, where it has stayed for more than 20 years. Then, to ensure no break in the run of performances, it closed in ‘The New Ambassador’ one Saturday night, and opened on the Monday night in the theatre next door, ‘St Martins’, where it has been performing since.

By the 13^th October 2011 the play has clocked up a record-breaking 24,537 performances, mostly under the directorship of David Turner. The original cast starred Richard Attenborough as Detective Sergeant Trotter, with Richard’s wife Sheila Sim, portraying Mollie Ralston. The voice of Deryck Guyler reading the news bulletin, has survived all of the cast changes.

Publication of the original short story has still not been allowed within the UK, although it has appeared in a collection of short stories in the USA.

Under the contract terms of the play, only one other version of the play can be performed annually. No cinema adaptation being allowed until the West End play has been closed for at least six months.

In 1940, Agatha’s daughter Rosalind married Hubert Prichard, and in 1943 they had a son, Mathew. A year later, Hubert was killed on active service. In 1949 Rosalind remarried, her second husband being Anthony Hicks.

In 1959, Agatha Christie transferred the Greenway estate into Rosalind’s name, and eight years later they all moved into the manor house. The Hickses developed the estate, and then in 2000 they presented the house and grounds to the National Trust.

Agatha gave the rights of this play to her grandson, Mathew Pritchard, as a birthday present. Incidentally, when Agatha died, it was found that she had only left a couple of hundred pounds in her Will. With all her shrewdness, and to avoid death duties, she had squirreled her millions away into trusts, mainly in the name of her grandson Mathew.

By 1997, with the play still earning a fortune, ‘The Mousetrap Theatre Project’ was set up. This being a theatrical education charity that aimed to help underprivileged youngsters experience professional theatre.

       It's a dark evening and the snow is falling thick. At Monkswell Manor the proprietors, Mollie Ralston (Vanessa Harding) and her husband, Giles (Evan Stickells) are nervously carrying out final preparations to receive their very first paying guests in their newly converted hotel. Four have booked in.

      The first guest to arrive at the hotel is Christopher Wren (David Kerr), a highly-strung young man who is named after the architect. He is acting in an odd manner and what is he running away from?

       Next to arrive is Mrs Boyle (Joan Scafe), a miserable, nit-picking old busybody who expects the very best – no excuses accepted. She has shared a taxi with newly retired Major Metcalf (Bob Charteris), a traveller with virtually no luggage. His arrival is closely followed by the butch Miss Casewell (Jessica Hewitson), dressed in masculine clothes.

       An unexpected arrival is Mr Paravicini (Greg Ross), a lecherous man but of unknown provenance. His car has overturned in a snowdrift. Paravicini has a foreign accent and strangely appears to be wearing make-up.

        Just as all of the guests have arrived, the radio music programme is interrupted by a newsflash (Douglas Sutherland-Bruce), announcing that a murder has taken place in London and the frantic murderer is still on the run.

       The room quietens as the telephone rings. It is the local police station, advising that London CID have found a link between the London murder and Monkswell Manor. They are sending over an officer to protect them. Battling through snowdrifts, thankfully Sergeant Trotter (Rodney Palmer) arrives, but will he be in time to stop the murderer’s dastardly deeds?

With a cast of seven, who are on the very small stage for virtually the whole performance, award-winning director, Lynne Toogood had her work cut out to keep them all moving and retaining audience interest. The storyline requires several doors and passageways to allow the many characters to be able to get to almost any part of the house unseen, again a challenge for the set designers (Fred Petersen and Ray Egan), but they managed to fit the recognised set into the minute space.

The lighting was very good, especially the atmosphere of the final scene; however the lights had an unexplained, split-second total blackout.

The actors’ voice projection was poor; in fact most actors simply chatted, and at times were hard to hear above the very noisy air conditioner that ran for the first half of each act. The radio message in the first act that gave all important clues linked to the costumes - was inaudible, as was the initial noises-off piano playing.

This play isn’t simply a drama but a ‘whodunit’. The script is very cleverly constructed so that each character has a little touch of mystery, almost the whole cast missed this in their deliveries. There was blandness in the acting, no one was truly enigmatic. I liked the interpretations of Christopher Wren and Mr Paravicini, but they became almost caricatures.

Near the end of the play when the sergeant is quizzing the guests, the script is designed to make the audience repeatedly change their choice of killer, but the phrasing of these passages was poor and the tension slipped by.

The accents were poor. There was glaring miscasting. The pace was off, poor focusing and inter-cast chemistry generally missing. Harsh words I know, and I am sorry, but I found this very disappointing.

I understand that the season is sold out.

Please keep secret the identity of the murderer / murderess, as generations have for decades.