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.

A week or so back, I wrote, in a published letter to The West Australian, that all reviews were, by nature, both subjective and objective and that as long as no malice was intended, then there are always lessons to be learnt from a knowledgeable, fair reviewer.

I read Gordon The Optom’s review with interest – I’m in the cast – and felt he made some salient points and was mistaken in others, however I was quietly pleased it wasn’t one more saccharine suck-up and felt overall, it was constructive.

It would appear to be well-known that director, Lynne Devenish, had enormous trouble finding people for some roles, indeed, after I’d read the play, I didn’t really want to do it, (more of those thoughts later). One major role wasn’t cast until three weeks before opening night - we are all deeply indebted to that person for reluctantly agreeing to stand in. Several of the cast have been sick throughout the rehearsal period, one even hospitalised, however, in the end, these are only excuses,   as much as possible, every performance should be right on the night.

I know I was extremely concerned on the Preview night, thinking, “Bloody hell, we need another three rehearsals!”  The preview was in fact our first dress rehearsal. But by the following Thursday night, which our reviewer attended, I thought it was coming together, although not perfect and yes, I agree, we as a cast were still struggling to work properly together.

I know the noisy air conditioner is a problem, as are functions in the hall next door – it seems to be rented out to bogans for celebrations (read excessive drinking), on a regular basis, not to mention the railway crossing bells and the odd aircraft or two, three feet above the roofline every five minutes, although it must be said that the   Irish prick running Qantas into the ground is doing his best to cut noise levels. Curiously, after that Thursday performance, an elderly couple told me they were really pleased with the cast voice projection, they could hear everyone clearly. I kid you not! Although somebody else that same night, told me “It’s such a dark play!” I wondered whether they’d wandered in from Parliament House.

Be that as it may, I think Gordon’s review did help the cast successfully confront several performance issues and I for one, am grateful, as I’m now very happy to recommend the performances to friends and theatre lovers anywhere.

However, I must take Old Opto to task on his fawning delight in Agatha Christie’s play. My dear chap, it is not cleverly constructed, it is run-of-the-mill crap, written by a homophobic old cow who belittles anybody not white, heterosexual, protestant and English. Yes, I concede, she did write some good stuff, but this has not aged well, any high school drama student could have come up with the same dross, although they would have failed their exams … I hope!

I can tell you, it’s the bland script that makes it very, very difficult for all the actors to put some sort of character into what are basically soulless, stilted caricatures. Personally, I think Joan Scafe has the biggest challenge as Mrs Boyle, I feel for her every night. I at least have a half a chance with Paravicini, as does newcomer David Kerr with Christopher Wren. Gordon, I feel, would have been more correct to have stated that one slips dangerously on thin ice, trying to give character to caricatures.

Having said all that, it is, audience members tell me, a rollicking good night at the theatre, giving people a chance to see an iconic play. And if I may be so bold as to speak for my fellow cast members, we are all now, along with the audience,  having a lot of fun with what is in truth, a very forgettable piece of B-grade theatre. In spite of it all, I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity and I hope – no, I know, we’re bringing a lot of pleasure to audiences night after night, after night.
All Good Things

Greg Ross

Minister for Good Times

The ITA are a Supportive body, not a governing body. Besides, you can't regulate Independent Theatre Companies from putting on what shows they put on. They're independent after all. Let's face it, that has to be controlled within the individual company itself.

Even so, they may be at sorts in finding shows that directors want to put on and are often left with what they can get. That is not to say that happened here as I don't know. Just pointing out that there may be many unseen factors that resulted in this double billing.

Besides that, Garrick and Melville are substantial distances apart and have very different demographics. It is doubtful (thought not unlikely) that there would be too many people going to see both plays, and their catchment areas don't really cross over.

All in the spirit of good healthy debate.

Absit invidia (and DFT :nono:)

Jeff Watkins