About the Play:

The Mousetrap was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th century.

The Mousetrap has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes.

The Mousetrap is a full-length melodrama by Agatha Christie. As news spreads of a murder in London, a group of seven strangers are confined to a snowed-in guest house. When a police sergeant arrives, they're shocked to learn that a killer is in their midst. One by one, each is confronted with his or her sordid past in an effort to identify the killer. Which one is the murderer? Who will be their next victim? The Mousetrap is a suspenseful narrative of fear, risk, and revelation.

The Mousetrap begins when a group of strangers stranded at Monkswell Manor during a snow storm discover, to their horror, that there is a murderer in their midst. As the snow piles up, so does the suspense in this classic "who-done-it" by the master of British murder mysteries. The suspects include the newly married couple who run the house, and the suspicions that are in their minds nearly wreck their perfect marriage. Others are a spinster with a curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired Army major, a strange little man who claims his car has overturned in a drift, and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone. Into their midst comes a policeman, travelling on skis. He no sooner arrives, than the jurist is killed. Two down, and one to go. To get to the rationale of the murderer's pattern, the policeman probes the background of everyone present. The lines between truth and fabrication are blurred, and he rattles a lot of skeletons. Another famous Agatha Christie switch finish! Chalk up another superb intrigue for the foremost mystery writer of her time.

The Mousetrap has been thrilling audiences in London's West End since it premiered at The Ambassadors Theatre in 1952. The production was originally adapted from Agatha Christie's radio play, Three Blind Mice, written for the Royal family in 1947. Since then The Mousetrap has become known as theatre history's longest running play and reached its 25,000th performance back in 2012. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in high school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 5 male

What people say:

"One of the most skillfully written murder mysteries ever produced." — New York Times

"A truly entertaining classic thriller." — The Sunday Times

"Deservedly a classic among murder thrillers." — The Observer

"The cleverest murder mystery of the British theatre." — The Daily Telegraph

About the Playwright:

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and, in many languages, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. In a writing career that spanned more than half a century, Agatha Christie wrote 66 crime novels, 150 short story collections, over 20 plays, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott. Her work includes Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and the genre-defining And Then There Were None. In addition several of her original works were adapted for the stage by third parties.