The Mousetrap

now in its 70th year

In 1952, Agatha Christie's sprawling and intricate new whodunnit, The Mousetrap (based on her radio play, Three Blind Mice), opened in the West End on a very strict condition; no audience or press member was to ever give away the plot of the show! 

Christie herself was not altogether positive as to the play's run, giving it eight months 'at most', so perhaps her edict seemed fair at the time. But it is a testament to theatre audiences that The Mousetrap has endured at St. Martin's Theatre, running for an incredible seventy years to date. To put that into perspective, when the show first played, Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, London still suffered from the Great Smog, the NHS was just four years old, and Dame Vera Lynn dominated the hit parade!

sssshhhh!

Seven decades have done nothing to dull The Mousetrap, the story of an odd assortment of guests snowed in at Monkswell Manor, whilst a murderer is at large and en-route. But could they be already here? When bodies start showing up, it's up to the stranded group to solve the mystery, before they become a part of it?

Did you know?

Wonder why you haven't seen the film? The secrecy around the plot wasn't the only condition laid down by Dame Agatha. A film adaptation is only allowed six months after the West End production closes, and given that it has been going strong for nearly seventy years without any sign of ending, that doesn't look all that likely any time soon!