Book Club

Christie's Plays

Agatha Christie wrote over a dozen plays, the most famous of which is The Mousetrap - the longest running play in the world. Here you can discuss each play in detail.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

The Mousetrap

Rea_Potter 28 Sep 08 at 6:26 p.m. GMT

It is one of my favourite book. I really like it because it is short an you can read it during only a few hours. It is voluble and isn't boring. :)

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cristina86 27 Dec 11 at 8:22 p.m. GMT

I FINALLY GOT TO SEE IT!! :D In italian translation - just came back from it now. I don't have words to express how excited I am! I knew the story already, I had read both the short story and the play's script - and I was hoping fervently for YEARS that it would someday be staged here in Italy. Now it's been - and to make things better for a Christie fanatic like myself, on my birthday day! Seeing the Mousetrap on stage was the BEST present! *_* *still speechless and in awe and yes, humming the tune, I know I won't be able to get it off my head!* XDDAlso; Christopher Wren FTW! :D My all time favorite character from the story, play - and could he be otherwise in staged play too? Every of his line was a definite killer! ;) :P

Theatre_Sleuth 12 Dec 11 at 5:59 p.m. GMT

mr_mcginty Very interesting to read your comments. Have been avid fan for years and read everythign she wrote when i was a teenager. have now started delving into the books again. had heard of the supposed flaw many times in the mousetrap but on reading it saw that actually there are quite a few.

however at present i am directing a production as part of the 60th world wide anniversary celebrations and so have studied the text more than usual. the role of miss casewell is intriguing and the issue of whether she is in the library/dining room and her actions not been re-played at the end must be the flaw, I have no doubt. BUT, what has also emerged is in the writing has Christie, all these years been playing a trick on audiences? The more i study the script and the more we reherase the show, it comes alive before me and i can see that there's almost a linear mystery here, maybe written by Christie to amuse herself? One other character is maybe not as innocent as they make out and with this spin, which to me once info is collated is evident is even more sinister than Trotter. Just putting it out there to see if anyone else has picked up on this? Not sure what to/where to disclose what i think - doubt there's much market for a world wide revelation about the worlds longest running play but I'd be keen to write something down to prove my point. (BTW - I'm nowhere being a sad sit at home geek with nothing better to do, but as a Theatre Director my job is to study scripts - hence the discovery!)

mr_mcginty 07 Mar 11 at 5:40 p.m. GMT

I was watching a documentary on Agatha from the 80's where they mentioned the supposed fatal flaw in the Mousetrap, and that Agatha knew about it but could find no way to resolve it but presumed most people wouldn't notice. And she was right.

So I set about re-reading the play again to see if I could pick up on it, 

However what I noticed after that is before the murder, when Miss Casewell exits the scene, she is instructed to exit the stage through the dining room door (presumably this was because Mrs Boyle was in the library). As we know Mrs Boyle comes out of the library and is then very shortly murdered. 

When Trotter interrogates Miss Casewell, she says that at the time of the murder, she was in the library writing a letter, but how could she have been? How did she get from the Dining Room to the Library? When Trotter gets everyone to replicate the movements of everyone else in the house at the time of the murder, Miss Casewell is the only person who's movements don't get replicated... When Trotter re-creates Mrs Boyle's movements, he is the only one in the library. 

So are Miss Casewell's movements the fatal flaw of the Mousetrap? We know there is another entrance into the dining room because Trotter goes into the dining room just after Miss Casewell exits and he reappears in the main hall archway. We know the drawing room and the library have a door between them as Trotter moves between those two rooms without being seen. 

But when Miss Casewell exits through the dining room before the murder, where exactly does she go? We know Mrs Boyle was alone in the library, so if Miss Casewell was in the library like she said she was, how did she get in there and she must've only been in there for a very short time. And in getting to the library, she would've had to have come across Trotter either outside or as he was coming back into the house...

englishriviera 19 Nov 10 at 12:55 a.m. GMT

I totally agree with Dial M for Marple! Since my first staying in London in 1996, I went 5 times to St Martin´s Theatre  to watch The Mousetrap. I love all of them.

I would like to remind everybody that as the play is running for more than half a century  the way action was presented remind us of oldtimes. I do |Love it!!

Dial_M_for_Marple 12 Nov 10 at 1:51 a.m. GMT

I read a lot of ya'll's comments, & I was saddened. even though he version I saw was put on by amateurs, it was amazingly done. I see a lot of theater by professionals & the one I saw was as good as a professional production. the actors weren't hams & I even talked to a 3 of them after the show, & 2 of them were actual AC fans who have read a lot of her books & really cared about the play, & that showed. 

Dial_M_for_Marple 12 Nov 10 at 1:42 a.m. GMT

I loved The Mousetrap, I had read the short story & loved it so when my sister's boyfriend texted me & said that a university was going to be doing the play, my mom & I drove 2 hours to see it. it was amazing, I knew who the culprit was, but my mom didn't & I think she loved it even more than I did. :]

Tommy_A_Jones 07 Oct 10 at 2:16 p.m. GMT

You must have gone into the Wrong theatre by mistake poirotsgirl as the Characters are far from Cardboard, When I went in 1986 The Cast and Characters were all brilliant.

I have seen an AM Dram version of Spider's Web and it might be because it was AM Dram even though there are Brilliant AM Dram Comany's but I thought the Play was week and silly and not in a Good way, I have also seen an AM Dram version of Murder At The Vicarage which was obviously played for laugh's and that was O.K. but just O.K.

MonkswellManor 06 Oct 10 at 11:17 p.m. GMT

An 1982 interview with Sir Peter Saunders, Agatha Christie's theatrical producer during her lifetime, is available on Amazon Kindle: Building A Better "Mousetrap". Asked why he gave her top billing, he said: "I couldn't afford top actors at that time. I thought: Well, she's got all those readers. I should make her the star."

216816 04 Sep 10 at 8:31 p.m. GMT

This has been the only AC play that I have seen live in theatre and I loved it. A very well written mystery and, as always, one with a surprise ending. I think I read further up that someone was asking if the plays appear outside of London. I'm sure it does; the play I saw was in a theatre in Garland, Texas. (I would've thought this answer to be obvious, but it seemed like someone had said the answer was no so...)

poirotsgirl 14 Jul 10 at 9:59 a.m. GMT

Agree with those on the The Mousetrap in london ...not being to great. 

I was looking forward to this immensely and was very disappointed.

yes its an institution but the characters seem to be cardboard cutouts going through the motions and the first half really does drag incredibly. They have done it soo many times you cant help but feel that when they arent talking they are thinking about...1.the football score, 2. the sainsburys shopping list...3. what they are going to do with the rest of their evening once it is over.

very disappointed by the performance which given the writing should be outstanding and very solid.

a great agatha story neglected by poor cast.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 05 Jul 10 at 4:17 p.m. GMT

Oh dear, how very sad.  If/when you do come again, perhaps try a matinee version and just take yourself along.  Who knows it may be better a second time?  But I hope I'm not the only one out here who loves these old-fashioned plays.  It will be a sorry day indeed when The Mousetrap is taken off the London stage. 

I'd love to see 'Spider's Web' - having read the adapted book recently.  Has anyone seen a version?

xrysoula 02 Jul 10 at 12:45 p.m. GMT

I am sorry too, miss Eylesbarrow.Believe me, it grieves me to talk like that, yet it 's sad but true.See, Marc Anton has had a similar experience.Even if I travel to London again, I don 't think I will find the heart to give it a second chance, it was way too disappointing.The worst thing about it was that I had drugged two friends along (not AC 's fans), having praised the book to them, and they 've been mocking me ever sice.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 02 Jul 10 at 11:43 a.m. GMT

I'm sorry to read your comments on 'The Mousetrap' Xrysoula.  I can only think that you must have been unfortunate enough to see a very poor production.  I've seen the play twice, the first time as a 20 something in the 1980s and the second time as a treat for my son's birthday in 2008 and loved the play both times.  For me it was pure delight and transported me into the story in the same way that reading the books does.  I'm a Londoner myself and cannot comment on whether it is good value for money for visitors from overseas, but I would certainly recommend it as an enjoyable evening out.  It's certainly no less value for money than the awful 'popular band becomes a play using their most famous songs' type of production which seems to infest the West End at present.

xrysoula 02 Jul 10 at 10:33 a.m. GMT

"THE TOURIST TRAP"

Does anyone out there care to hear the impressions of a foreign tourist?

I visited your fascinating capital in November 2004-utterly adored it, best journey of my life.About The Mousetrap though, I 'm afraid I have to agree with every single word Marc Anton has written.For an AC fan like myself, who had been ecstatic by the book, the stageplay I had so been looking forward to, was heartbreaking.So awfully directed and ill-acted, I was having trouble keeping up with the plot, to the point that I started wondering whether I was in a different play!If not anything else, I expected some respect for what I consider to be a national treasure, but no- the "actors" seemed to be laughing in our faces for having spent our money on a parody like that. I completely agree that the play only exists for reasons of prestige and to lurk ignorrant visitors such as myself.Come to think of it, they should rename it as "THE TOURIST TRAP".Such a pitty, such a shame.

On the other hand, The Woman In Black was such a delight.Real acting, true horror.When the lihts turned on,we ALL found ourselves clutched from one another, gasping and looking more pale than the ghost.An authentic masterpiece, a monument to what theater is all about.My deepest conratulations to every single member of the show.My advise to London visitors is:Skip The Mousetrap and go straight to The Woman In Black- it 's going to be one of the most intense experiences of your life.

gin_gerosa 26 Jun 10 at 9:19 a.m. GMT

Mouse Trap is definately one of Agatha's best. I acted it out once and it is sooo easy to slip into one of her characters because her use of adjectives and her description is AWESOME and totally RAD!

Fishcake16 31 Jan 10 at 9:02 p.m. GMT

I love this play. It's sooooooooo cleverly written. I LOVE it and think it is well worth watching!!! I like the old fashioned storyline and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!! I recommend it to EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Jan 10 at 4:23 p.m. GMT

No, But When I subscribed to the Set as Advertized on ITV afew years ago The Mouse Trap was one of the plays in the set, what's more the Film rights werew sold when the play first opened on Condition Filming didn't start until after the Run finished, I think there has to be a gaap of 6 Months before shooting is allowed to start and as the play is still running it won't be made yet.

HeiseiHolmes 15 Jan 10 at 4:05 p.m. GMT

Does this play ever appear outside of London? I really want to watch it...

Marc_Anton 30 Dec 08 at 1:51 p.m. GMT

Aurora, the film version of The Woman in Black must be quite different from the stage version because what I saw on stage did not really have a role for a female character. The only two speaking parts were two men, the title character (The Woman) did appear but only for a few seconds and only in silhouette, it was a non-speaking part. The actress (or extra) did not even appear at the curtain bows. So I guess the film version must have added another role since I too saw Pauline Moran in the casting list at IMDB. Can you still speak of a faithful stage adaptation? But it might be scary and mysterious anyway and I hope one day to find it on DVD. Next time I am in London perhaps I will see the show again, it is the second-longest running (no prizes for guessing who is 1st!) and it will still be there. If only for enjoying the reactions of the audience. I saw a Saturday evening performance with a noisy young audience (only the first 10 minutes) but they got drawn into the story very quickly and sure did they jump! But I did saw the film version of Spider’s Web once, it was a bit silly when I recall rightly but it might work on stage if you don’t take this kind of thing seriously. It is very light and not really a thriller, more like a crime-comedy but it might be fun. I hope you have a nice time and please report of the experience.

Aurora 30 Dec 08 at 12:46 p.m. GMT

The film version of The Woman in Black isn't available on DVD (why I don't know as it would sell like hot cakes) but we have it on VHS (it's that old) and it is so atmosheric and scary. Pauline Moran is brilliant and, like the play, it's terrifying. I think so much could be learnt from the way this has been adapted as, whilst not a lot really seems to happen, it is so tense and suspense filled that it stays with you long after you've finished watching. This year, Spider's Web will be doing the rounds in the UK. Since Bill Kenwright has taken over producing them the plays have been given a more cinematic feel which, though over the top sometimes, works well. We are going to see it in April and I'll post my views then. I hope you get to see Pauline Moran in The Woman In Black one day - it really is a horror classic.