The Mousetrap

The legendary record-breaking stage production of Agatha Christie's whodunit The Mousetrap in London

In her own inimitable style, Dame Agatha Christie has created an atmosphere of shuddering suspense and a brilliantly intricate plot where murder lurks around every corner. The Mousetrap: A Classic - A Landmark - A Legend.

Directed by Ian Talbot, original direction by Peter Cotes, with sets by Anthony Holland, original sets by Roger Furse, and lighting by Michael Northen.

The Mousetrap in London is the world's longest continuous theatrical production. It originally opened at London's Ambassadors Theatre on 25 November 1952 where it remained for 21 years. On Saturday 12 April 1958 The Mousetrap became the longest running production of any kind in the history of British Theatre, beating the five-and-a-half years run of Chu Chin Chow. After its 8,862nd performance on the evening of Saturday 23 March 1974 it transferred to its current home, The St Martin's Theatre, on Monday 25 March 1974 without missing a performance. This production celebrated its 50th Anniversary on Monday 25 November 2002 with a special Gala Performance attended by Her Majesty, The Queen and His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh. Over 400 actors and actresses have appeared in the London production. Due to COVID-19 restrictions this production was forced to close on Saturday 14 March 2020 after a record-breaking run of 28,199 performances. This production reopened at a special performance - the play's 28,200th performance - on Monday 17 May 2021.

A special feature for the reopening in 2021 was the use of two casts who alternated for the first eight-weeks from Monday 17 May to Sunday 11 July 2021: Cast One featured Cassidy Janson as 'Mollie Ralston', Danny Mac as 'Giles Ralston', Alexander Wolfe as 'Christopher Wren', Susan Penhaligon as 'Mrs Boyle', Derek Griffiths as 'Major Metcalf', Lizzie Muncey as 'Miss Casewell', David Rintoul as 'Mr Paravicini', and Paul Hilliar as 'Detective Sergeant Trotter', who performed from Monday 17 to Wednesday 19 May, Friday 28 May to Thursday 3 June, Friday 11 to Thursday 17 June, Friday 25 June to Thursday 1 July, and Friday 9 to Sunday 11 July. Cast Two featured Kate Tydman as 'Mollie Ralston', Nicholas Bailey as 'Giles Ralston', Joshua Griffin as 'Christopher Wren', Louise Jameson as 'Mrs Boyle', Paul Bradley as 'Major Metcalf', Sarah Moss as 'Miss Casewell', Tony Timberlake as 'Mr Paravicini', and Charlie Clements as 'Detective Sergeant Trotter', who performed from Thursday 20 to Thursday 27 May, Friday 4 to Thursday 10 June, Friday 18 to Thursday 24 June, and Friday 2 to Thursday 8 July.

This production plays a nine-performances-a-week: Prior to closing in March 2020 it played Monday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm, with afternoon matinees on Tuesday and Thursday at 3.00pm, and Saturday at 4.00pm. After reopening in May 2021 it played Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm, Sunday evenings at 6.00pm, with afternoon matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 3.00pm, and Sunday at 2.00pm.

Prior to opening in London's West End at the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 November 1952, this production embarked on a seven-week tour: Nottingham Theatre Royal from Monday 6 to Saturday 11 October 1952; Oxford New Theatre from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 October 1952; Manchester Opera House from Monday 20 to Saturday 25 October 1952; Liverpool Royal Court from Monday 27 October to Saturday 1 November 1952; Newcastle Theatre Royal from Monday 3 to Saturday 8 November 1952; Leeds Grand Theatre from Monday 10 to Saturday 15 November 1952; and Birmingham Alexandra Theatre from Monday 17 to Saturday 22 November 1952. The cast for the tour, who all transferred to London's West End, featured Richard Attenborough as 'Detective Sergeant Trotter', Sheila Sim as 'Mollie Ralston', John Paul as 'Giles Ralston', Allan McClelland as 'Christopher Wren', Mignon O'Doherty as 'Mrs Boyle', Aubrey Dexter as 'Major Metcalf', Jessica Spencer as 'Miss Casewell', and Martin Miller as 'Mr Paravicini'. The production was directed by Peter Cotes, with sets and lighting by Roger Furse.

Lucy Bailey's revival of Agatha Christie's courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution is currently playing in a 'site-specific' staging at London County Hall.

"Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is stuffed full of very mouldy old theatrical cheese. But mouldiness is what gives this decrepit little thriller, now celebrating its 40th successive West End year, a distinctive aroma and its raison d'etre. The Mousetrap is our last direct contact with a vanished theatrical world - a world before the angry young generation seized the hour and began to transform our theatre root and branch. It belongs to a time when the theatre scarcely went further than the middle class drawing room; when the Lord Chamberlain was responsible for censoring the stage, keeping language and action as clean and sex-less as a scoutmaster's whistle; when a multi-racial society, women's liberation and corrupt policemen were things of the future. And gay was just the word Ivor Novello used for his latest, fragrant musical. Even in 1952 Christie was antique hat. She had never moved much beyond the Thirties country house world, and a thriller formula in which almost everyone was made to look guilty until proved innocent. But the great popularity of her procedure hardly explains why The Mousetrap has survived so phenomenally long. Ian Watt-Smith, the director responsible for the production's annual resuscitation, does not help to promote goose pimples and cheap thrills. After a small scream in the dark, the stage is plunged into the light of the Great Hall of Monkswell Manor hotel in snow-bound Berkshire, where Anthony Holland's decor looks a touch mock Tudor cardboard and the characters rather match. According to young Detective Sergeant Trotter who arrives on skis, a murderer is already in their midst. The villain in question has thoughtfully dropped a note near the scene of his last murder indicating the manor is his next destination. And since every guest seems either suspicious or disturbed tension slightly rises. Despite the Lord Chamberlain's veto on homosexual characters, Christie, in need of a few choice crazies, slips some in. The sinister Miss Casewell in suit and tie, Mr Paravinci who 'wears make-up, rouge and powder' and the disturbed Christopher Wren who 'adores chiffoniere,' are among those suspected of committing murder just before the first curtain. Preposterousness takes The Mousetrap in a vice-like grip and does not release it until the final un-likely revelations." The London Evening Standard (1992)

"The Mousetrap celebrates its 60th birthday later this year and it remains the longest-running show of all time... Agatha Christie's play is set in the Great Hall of Monkswell Manor, in Berkshire. The mahogany set comes with a huge leaded window and a fireplace. The phone line is down, the snow is piled up, and the victims and suspects arrive on cue. One is a killer... The action takes place in a world of rationing, Bakelite appliances, tweed and solid fuel boilers... The play has been preserved in aspic. Even the newsreader on the radio is history: it's the voice of the late Deryck Guyler. The lovely St Martin's Theatre has Mousetrap memorabilia in its bars and foyers, making it a little museum for the show. Bored critics occasionally demand that The Mousetrap come off to make way for more relevant theatre. But why not leave it for another 60 years? It's not great drama; it's not even a great whodunit. But it's definitely an enjoyable time-tunnel into the lost genre of the country-house murder mystery. If the current producer ever decides to close it down, the National Trust must step in." The Mail on Sunday 2012

"Now in its 60th year on the London stage, and the longest running show in the world, Agatha Christie's play - thriller hardly seems the right word when even a corpse looks quite cosy - is visited in the same spirit that still sends tourists queuing at Lenin's tomb. It is a mummified relic of what was once believed in. Which has a point of its own. The Mousetrap provides what a theatre museum, for all its perfectly preserved costumes, playbills and voice recordings, cannot. It gives audiences a chance to experience a piece of stage life lifted wholesale from the past, a piece that carries the DNA of the first performance, that has not been re-created but continuously re-enacted. Some of what is seen is the stuffiness that gives the over maligned 50s a bad name, but it has a weird authenticity." The Observer 2012

Sir Peter Saunders (1911 to 2003), the original producer of The Mousetrap from 1952 to 1994, writes: "When the late Queen Mary was approaching her eightieth birthday she was asked by the BBC what she would like to celebrate the event - anything from Shakespeare to opera. Queen Mary said she would like "an Agatha Christie play" and Mrs Christie promptly wrote a thirty-minute radio production called Three Blind Mice. This was eventually to become The Mousetrap.
It was some years later when Agatha Christie asked me to lunch with her. Over the coffee she handed me a brown paper parcel and said, "This is a little present for you". The present was the script of The Mousetrap and the one person who made no money out of it was the authoress herself. She had left it in trust for her seven-year-old grandson and all her royalties went to him.
When The Mousetrap opened on the 25th November 1952, Sir Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, Harry S. Truman was President of the USA and Stalin was Head of Russia. Meat, bacon, sugar, cheese, butter and margarine were still rationed. And every man and woman in the country had to have an Identity Card.
It would be easy to write a statistical biography of Agatha Christie. She has written or had adapted from her books 21 plays; her eightieth book was published on her eightieth birthday in September 1970, more than one billion of her books have been sold in the English language and more than one billion in foreign languages. In fact, in March 1962, UNESCO announced that Agatha Christie was the most widely read British writer in the world, with Shakespeare coming a poor second. In 1956 she was awarded the CBE, and in the New Year's Honours List of 1971 she was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire.
But after an association and friendship with her lasting more than 25 years and halted only by her death on 12th January 1976, I would like to write a little more personally about her. Agatha Christie was very shy, although this shyness extended only to strangers. Among her friends she was both extremely talkative yet a wonderful listener and was extremely knowledgeable on a vast range of subjects. A great Royalist, she nevertheless disliked pomp. Until well into middle age she played tennis and could be seen with her family bathing on the beach at Paignton in Devon."

The Mousetrap in London originally opened at the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 November 1952, closed 23 March 1974, transferred to the St Martin's Theatre on 25 March 1974, closed on 14 March 2020, and reopened from 17 May 2021