Queen of crime, Agatha Christie wrote 66 novels, and 14 short story collections, in a career which spanned 50 years. Alongside her peers Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L Sayers (whose amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey shares some DNA with busybody Miss Marple), Christie pretty much designed the blueprint for the modern murder mystery.
Christie’s parallel career in theatre is less celebrated than her fiction. She penned over a dozen stage plays, including The Mousetrap, which has been running in the West End for 75 years. Why has it endured? Because of a verbal contract between writer, cast and audience: that nobody should reveal whodunit after the curtain comes down. Judged against the rarefied company of Murder on the Orient Express, or Ten Little Indians, The Mousetrap is a category B work. That said, this new touring production still makes for a fun night out.
As the radio broadcasts regular updates of a murder in London, a group of seven strangers find themselves snowed in at a remote country guesthouse, run by married couple Mollie and Giles Ralston (Emily Laing and Jack Hardwick). Guests include budding architect, and possible OCD sufferer, ‘Christopher Wren’ (an enjoyably manic Thomas Barrett), plus tetchy old lady Mrs Boyle (Susan Penhaligon). Aloof and glamorous, Miss Casewell (a steely Claire Duffy), makes vague reference to a childhood trauma, one which forced her to start a new life in Majorca at age twelve. Garrulous, stereotypical Italian Mr Paravicini (James Peake) may as well enter with a giant neon sign that reads ‘Red Herring’; ‘I am the unexpected guest’, he trills with an air of pride, ‘the guest you did not invite … a man of mystery!’ Yes, we get the point. Plodding copper Sgt Trotter (Alfie Richards) arrives in surprisingly debonair fashion, on a pair of skis. Trotter swiftly informs the guests that the killer is in the area; a revelation which forces each character to reluctantly air the skeletons lurking in their closet.
It’s an intricate plot. The dead woman in Paddington was Mrs Lyon (real name, Maureen Stanning). What became of her three children? Trotter has come to Monkswell Manor because the address was one of only two featured in the dead woman’s diary. We are told the killer is a homicidal sex maniac; well, everyone deserves a hobby. The next, on stage murder is a long time coming, though staged with great spooky atmosphere by director Hannah Chissick.
We’ve seen characters like this many times before. Drawing room thrillers teeter perilously close to parody. However, there are no weak links in the cast, which is why this production works. I’ll always have time for Susan Penhaligon, thanks to her flighty performance in WW2 drama ‘Soldier of Orange’, a pre Hollywood Paul Verhoeven movie in which she played a British intelligence officer with a perverse penchant for squashing house flies. Penhaligon is clearly relishing the opportunity to play The Mousetrap’s sourest character, hobbling about the stage and making reactionary statements like ‘The working class have no idea of their responsibilities!’ It’s not much of a leap to picture Mrs Boyle attending a REFORM conference, and whacking a protester over the head with her stick. Nicholas Bailey is an engaging presence as the plummy toned Major Metcalfe, good enough to leave a vacuum when he occasionally exits. Laing and Hardwick have an easy chemistry as the lead couple, whilst Richards brings the right degree of humourless efficiency to Sgt Trotter. During the curtain call, the cast politely ask the audience to keep the ending to themselves. Fair enough. When I came out of the theatre, I overheard a woman blabbing the killer’s identity to a passing stranger. It’s hard to understand such a peevish, killjoy attitude. Clearly, she doesn’t understand that the Christie estate don’t take prisoners. Is it worth the risk? You have been warned.
The Mousetrap is at the Opera House, Manchester from 26-31 October 2026.